Didn't President Bush, at the State of the Union Address, propose $15 billion to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean over five years? If so, then the $2.4 billion that was finally authorized in The United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003, is good news, but falls short of the $3 billion authorization passed by Congress in May.

Given that Congress just appropriated an additional $87 billion for the war effort, my complaint may appear to be in bad taste. I realize that my quibbling over a mere $600 million seems petty in the midst of politics by compromise. As a rule, there is usually a divide between the sound bites at a State of the Union address that garner applause and accolades and what Congress actually appropriates. But the battle against AIDS is different. Because of its critical role to American self-interest, full funding for AIDS efforts should be viewed no differently than the $87 billion in additional funding that Congress recently appropriated for Iraq.

According to the Global AIDS Alliance, the president is preparing to submit a global AIDS budget request in FY 2005 that is no greater than what Congress will likely provide in FY 2004. Under the president's spending plan, the US will provide just 16 percent of what the UN has stated is needed for a minimal response to AIDS by 2005 ($10.5 billion), in contrast to the 33 percent the U.S. has provided to the international effort against polio and smallpox.

The need for America to take a substantive lead in fighting AIDS in Africa has been well documented. With 10 percent of the world's population, Africa harbors 70 percent of adults and 80 percent of children infected with HIV in the world. The United Nations projects that half or more of all 15-year-olds will die of AIDS in the worst afflicted African nations -- Botswana, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.

The World Health Organization will provide new estimates on the global AIDS epidemic this week, which will suggest that the $2.4 billion allocated falls short of what will be needed by FY2005. In fact, the $3 billion, which was originally proposed by the president, would still fail to meet the existing need. But beyond the allocation of resources, the failure of the Bush Administration to possess a worldview of AIDS that extends beyond Africa may be equally problematic.

AIDS is a disease rooted in poverty. The ability to receive medication, prevention information, and understand one's legal rights is directly connected to one's economic status. Wherever AIDS and extreme poverty co-exist, America's national security is threatened.

The spread of AIDS globally has the potential to destabilize certain regions of the world that could portray Al-Qaeda as offering a "faux hope." AIDS can provide the cement for sustained hopelessness, thus maintaining spawning grounds for Al-Qaeda, whose marketing campaign is specifically designed to target those void of hope.

The relationship between India and Pakistan is already tenuous. The bordering nations possess nuclear weapons and a deep distrust for each other. Will this fragile relationship alter assuming that AIDS explodes in India as predicted? Does it up the ante to use war as a diversionary tactic?

Meanwhile, the president has skillfully frontloaded his AIDS conversation with compassionate conservative sound bites. His State of the Union Address, 10 months ago, advocating for the global AIDS crisis was nothing short of masterful, demonstrating humanitarian internationalism as a mechanism to counter his pugnacious foreign policy.

The linear manner, through the prism of arrogance, in which the present administration seeks to find "the" truth undercuts the so-called war on terror. If the Bush Administration were serious in its resolve to fight terror, it would view the resources to fight AIDS globally as an extension of the Peace Corps. $87 billion could create a lot of goodwill in parts of the world where disease, destruction, death, and Al-Qaeda have taken up permanent residence.

Byron Williams writes a weekly political/social commentary at Byronspeaks.com. Byron serves as pastor of the Resurrection Community Church.

© 2003 Working Assets

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