The U.S., Oil, and a Dictator

In August, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Angola, which is run by the dictatorial Jose Eduardo dos Santos. During that visit, Clinton threw out the usual calls for democracy. But last week, a law was passed that stripped Angolans of the right to vote for their president. Instead, the president will be elected by the parliament. This was because dos Santos feared he might receive less of the vote than his party did in the 2008 parliamentary elections, thus checking the Angolan president's immense powers. Clinton actually praised those parliamentary elections, which weren't deemed free or fair by independent observers.

Clinton was in Angola last summer because of Angola's vast oil reserves. The U.S. is also hoping to combat China's influence in the resource rich African nation. So the question becomes, will the Obama administration pursue a policy of kowtowing to dictators for the sake of oil and in order to engage in a self-defeating game of offsetting China's influence? Or will the Obama administration buck the trend of U.S. presidents past and shun a dictator and his oil so as to show support for the war-ravaged and voiceless people of Angola?