Mali mainly, 2012 coup, drugs & more

[Dayuhan]

I just need to point out that it is always the US government, US news media and US academics who fret the most about the US losing its competitive edge to the Chinese in Africa.

The US government, media, and academics do an unbelievable amount of fretting over an extraordinary number of things. Any given fret-set in isolation might seem large, but has to be evaluated against all the others. If you made a hierarchical ranking of all the things they fret over, I'd guess that losing out to the Chinese in Africa would be way down the list.

The average African is not that interested about the relative standing of the US with respect to the Chinese in Africa.

The average American wouldn't have the slightest idea what we're talking about.

Secondly, over promising and under delivering (or creating the impression that you can/will do more than you are actually willing/capable of doing) is never a good foreign policy. (E.g. Obama's speeches in Cairo and Accra, which in hindsight look a bit like a lot of hot air).

All political speeches are hot air... but it is true that politicians who give speeches outside the country should be more aware of the fact that there are those who haven't figured that out yet.

If the US kept its message as simple as you did, Africa would be a lot better off for it.

I don't know if Africa would be better off, but I suspect that the US would be. We will never know, because I'm never going to be the one defining the message!