Chicago Tribune - February 3, 2003
Salim Muwakkil*

And even as the president announced an admirable plan to help save lives in Africa, he nonetheless sought to rally the nation for a war that some experts predict will take between 48,000 and 260,000 lives in Iraq. Those numbers come from Medact--the British affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which last month released a report on the probable consequences of a Persian Gulf War. The report notes "additional deaths from post-war adverse health effects could reach 200,000."

Former South African President Nelson Mandela envisions even more dire consequences from America's planned Iraq attack. During a speech Thursday to the International Women's Forum in Johannesburg, Mandela said the Bush administration's policies will "plunge the world into a holocaust" all for the sake of "Iraqi oil."

He also criticized British Prime Minister Tony Blair for supporting Bush and charged both are undermining the United Nations and its Ghanaian secretary general Kofi Annan. "Is it because the secretary general of the United Nations is now a black man?" Mandela asked. "They never did that when secretary generals were white." This innuendo of racism is an unusual tactic from a man known more for his tactful circumspection. "Their [America's] friend Israel has got weapons of mass destruction but because it's their ally they won't ask the UN to get rid of it," he added. Mandela said it was the UN's existence that prevented a third world war and that the U.S., which dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, had no moral authority to police the world.

Such caustic criticism from such an esteemed statesman is just one example of how Bush's unilateral policies have provoked global disgust. But South Africa also is grateful it will be one of the recipients of the funds the Bush administration's new AIDS plan is making available.

The U.S. initiative will provide new money for AIDS drugs, education, doctors and specialized laboratories in 14 African countries; it's intended to provide drugs for 2 million people, care for 10 million AIDS patients and orphans and educate to help stem the epidemic. The plan will also cover AIDS projects in Haiti and Guyana.

Bush's announcement was "an encouraging sign of the U.S. government's commitment to preventing the further spread of AIDS in two of the worst-hit regions," said Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, the UN's HIV/AIDS program. "This initiative should spur other wealthy countries to increase their support for global AIDS efforts." The action was particularly noteworthy given the United State's reputation for aloofness from the problem and for collusion with the pharmaceutical companies fighting to maintain high prices for AIDS drugs. "The political significance of including it [the announcement] in the State of the Union and at the level of $15 billion--that's not small change," David Harrison, who runs Lovelife, South Africa's HIV prevention campaign for teenagers, told Canada's Globe and Mail.

In some respects, Bush's surprise gift was also a gesture of support for Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), the new Senate majority leader. One of the features that most distinguished Frist from former leader and segregation nostalgist Trent Lott was the Tennessee senator's widely touted AIDS work in Africa. Bush probably sees his AIDS initiative as a repudiation of the Lott mentality and a political investment in a diverse GOP future. And that's cool. Good policy is often the child of ulterior motives.

The Bush administration would prefer we see its AIDS plan as an example of compassionate conservatism. And why not?

But how should we see a U.S. invasion of Iraq? The world's mightiest armed forces are poised to invade an impoverished nation already crippled by a devastating military defeat and 12 years of ruthless economic sanctions, a nation degraded and defenseless. There can be no pride in that overkill unless the face of compassionate conservatism goes back into hiding.

*Salim Muwakkil is a senior editor at In These Times

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E-mail: salim4x@aol.com

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