OUR BROTHERS' KEEPERS:

The Other Bush War (Abner Mason, 03/24/2003, Tech Central Station)

The volume of commentary on the Bush administration's policy to lead the effort to disarm Iraq has overshadowed the other global fight President Bush has decided to lead, the war against HIV.

President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is a humanitarian relief effort of a scale never before attempted by any leader, of any nation, to benefit people of other nations. Given the magnitude of the devastation this epidemic has caused, and the continued threat it poses, a commensurate response is required.

But no matter how desperate the need is for a relief program of the scale Bush has proposed, there is no inexorable law that guarantees the existence of a nation with the resources and political leadership to provide it. This is a time when some people are anxious about the worldwide dominance of US power and wealth, particularly as exercised by the Bush Administration. But for those of us who understand the importance of waging a real war against HIV, and the risk associated with continued delay, we are grateful for America's wealth, generosity and political leadership.

AIDS is a monumental human tragedy. More than 60 million people have been infected with the deadly AIDS virus - 20 million are already dead. More than half of the 40 million people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa. If effective action is not taken soon in India and China, we could see a repeat of the African tragedy. Worldwide, if current rates of infection continue, 45 million more people will become infected by 2010. In the hardest hit regions of the world, decades of economic progress have been reversed, 14 million children have been orphaned and food production has plummeted causing famine. In addition to the human suffering involved, destabilization of this magnitude is a threat to the national security of nations around the world.

The AIDS epidemic is an international crisis that demands an effective response. President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is such a response. Bush proposes to spend $15 billion over five years to fight the epidemic in 14 countries in Africa and the Caribbean. Fifty percent of people infected worldwide live in these countries. The major focus of the plan is to provide life saving anti-retroviral treatment to people who need it. The Plan aims to provide this treatment to 2 million HIV infected people, prevent 7 million new infections and to care for 10 million infected people and AIDS orphans. In addition, $1 billion would go to the recently created Global Fund for AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis. Bush's Secretary of Health and Human Services has recently accepted the Chairmanship of the Fund - signaling renewed U.S. commitment to its success.

Just as the imbalance of our power vis-a-vis terror states may impose a moral obligation on us to dispose of them, so too does our inordinate wealth mean that where we can intervene to (possibly) save millions, we must. (Notice that we don't hear Old Europe and the UN complaining about our unilateralism here and demanding to be included.) But we should also be brutally frank and make it clear that this is an avoidable epidemic that people brought down on themselves by their behavior, whether through sexual promiscuity and aberrant practices or by sharing of needles in both licit and illicit circumstances. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 24, 2003 8:19 PM