by Ronald Louis Peterson

Created on: July 06, 2009   Last Updated: July 08, 2009

It would be short-sighted for the U.S. to base its relationship with Ethiopia today exclusively on the questionable human rights record of its current government. Think about where human rights would be today in Afghanistan and Iraq if the U.S. was not involved.

And, weren't the recent elections and subsequent public demonstrations in Iran protesting those election results signs that many Iranians yearn for a democracy, and a foreshadowing that Iran's tainted human rights record will improve sooner rather than later? What were the chances of these unlikely events if not for the elections in neighboring Afghanistan and Iraq, which would not have happened without U.S. support?

My point is that we cannot pursue political policy in a vacuum, especially in our fast-changing, integrated world. To get from here to there often requires working with governments that have human rights and other issues.

Ethiopia is finally a budding democracy and needs U.S. support more than ever to help nurture it along. The U.S. owes Ethiopia at least this much because it was a strong ally for many years. Unfortunately, Ethiopia's government has suffered many growing pains in recent years and its relationship with the U.S. was damaged in the process.

What about Ethiopia's leadership as a positive, unifying force in Africa? Ethiopia is a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and its successor, the African Union; both headquartered in Addis Ababa. Africa needs a strong, democratic Ethiopia to serve as a model for its other developing nations.

The fact that thousands of educated Ethiopians have established new, productive lives in America indicates that despite strong ties to their homeland, Ethiopians value the American way of life and would like to see it practiced in Ethiopia. To this end, some are even returning to their native land to share what they have learned and earned in America.

For example, there is the young Ethiopian woman who fled Ethiopia almost 30 years ago when the Marxist government imprisoned her husband for serving in the previous government. She settled in California, earned a pharmacist degree, and was a successful pharmacist before retiring in 2004. She returned to her Ethiopian hometown, armed with her retirement savings and a determination to fulfill a dream that took shape while she lived and worked in America. Upon her arrival in Ethiopia, she opened a home for disabled and destitute elderly. Then, she created scholarships

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