"Very cyncial way of looking at it"
We are talking about politicians here.
"he could have just bought $15Billion worth of military hardware."
He's probably already spent the defence budget.
"Few of the african countries who will benefit seem to be complaining"
That's because they've got more free cash to spend on Bush's friend's military hardware, more than likely. (maybe they'll spend it on French or German guns and missiles, that'd REALLY piss you off)