Bush’s Global AIDS Plan Lacks ‘Good Solid Planning,’ Providence Journal Editorial Says

While President Bush's "heart does seem to be in the right place" in his global AIDS initiative, his approach to the problem "smacks more of wishful thinking than good, solid planning," a Providence Journal editorial says. So far "almost nothing" has been done to put his five-year, $15 billion global AIDS initiative into effect, the Journal says. His proposed budget includes less than the $3 billion originally pledged for the first year of the initiative, and "[r]ather than relying on existing channels" of aid, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the plan calls for the implementation of a "new U.S. system of delivering assistance," the editorial says. In addition, during his trip to Africa last month, Bush failed to use his diplomatic pull to insist on recognition of the crisis by the government of South Africa and "did not seem to heed the reality that pushing abstinence, as the administration favors, is simply not enough," the Journal says. As a "moral matter ... the world should do all it can to fight AIDS ... [a]nd practically speaking, for the stability of a continent viewed as newly important to U.S. interests, AIDS must be stopped," the editorial says, concluding that the United States "would be better off contributing to multilateral efforts, while using its diplomatic clout to prod reluctant governments" (Providence Journal, 8/7).