What President Barack Obama does or does not do to end the killing and raping in the Congo would be his most enduring legacy of all. I first reached this conclusion in 2009 during President Obama's visit in Accra, Ghana. I reached that conclusion for four reasons:
1) the scale and implications of the killing and raping on the Congolese populace and the fabrics of the Congolese state;
2) the role Congo could play in the continent's tattered economy, growing political instability, poverty and famine, if coupled with good legal, political and economic regulatory mechanisms, policies and leadership; and
3) President Obama's leadership on the situation in Congo when he was still a Senator;—which was encapsulated in the passage of the Obama-Congo Relief Act in 2006; and
4) How historians will vindicate his response to Congo vis-à-vis that of his predecessor, President Bush. Presidential legacies are by their very nature an exercise in comparison.
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