by WorldTribune Staff, August 1, 2016
Two terms of the Obama administration “have done nothing to deter the despotic behavior of dictators in this war-ravaged region,” a former Sudanese official said.
“Washington has been talking the talk without walking the walk. In Washington’s best traditional practice, things are practically done about Europe and the Middle East but African affairs are just talked about,” Stephen Par Kuol, former Deputy Ambassador of Sudan to Tanzania, wrote for the Sudan Tribune on July 31.
He charged that Democratic Party administrations in the United States have “done a disservice to humanity” in Africa.
“A comprehensive review of American foreign policy towards Africa exposes a consistent lack of statesmanship, double standards, lack of preventive diplomacy and a disposition to defeat the very core values of American freedom and democracy,” Par Kuol wrote.
“The Democratic administrations in particular have done more disservice to humanity in this continent.”
President Barack Obama had hailed the independence vote of South Sudan as a foreign policy success. Soon after, Juba descended into a civil war that has ravaged the new country.
Par Kuol cited the Obama administration’s appointment of “two incompetent diplomats in the persons of Donald Booth and Molly Phee to South Sudan. The negotiation between the SPLMIO and (South Sudan President Salva) Kiir’s regime took that long in Ethiopia simply because Donald Booth has totally failed to educate himself of the root causes of the conflict and resigned to bashing both sides for failure to implement the peace agreement which has been unilaterally violated by Kiir and his Jieng Council of Elders in open defiance of all western empty threats.
“Those of us who worked with Ambassador Phee in Juba to implement ACRISS have known first hand that she has been miserably defeated by Kiir’s regime. As we witnessed during the recent evacuation, the malleable diplomat succumbed to Kiir’s hoodlums who humiliated American citizens in broad daylight at Juba International Airport,” Par Kuol wrote.
“Having failed the United States and the people of South Sudan, it is widely recommended that the two should just pack their suitcases and go home.
“In the meantime, the United States must take quick and practical action to reverse this costly foreign policy fiasco in the Horn of Africa.”