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On Helping - If Not On Killing - Is America a Quitter?
When President Obama visited Afghanistan in March, he assured U.S. troops that "the United States of America does not quit once it starts on something."
But according to Sunday's New York Times, it ain't necessarily so. When it comes to combating AIDS in the world's poorest countries, the greatest nation on earth has apparently decided to cry "Uncle."
Clinics in Uganda are turning people away, on orders from the U.S. government. A U.S.-run program in Mozambique has been told to stop opening clinics.
Why? According to lying U.S. officials, we don't have the money to maintain our commitment. Budgets are tight. We had to bail out Wall Street.
But the numbers on offer don't make any sense. Michel Sidibe, executive director of Unaids, says there is a global shortfall of about $17 billion for controlling the epidemic. The expected U.S. share of such a shortfall would be about a third, or $5.6 billion.
Meanwhile, Congress is about to be asked to fork over $33 billion in our tax dollars for more war in Afghanistan. This $33 billion would only pay for four months of the war, until the end of the fiscal year, when next year's appropriation will become available.
So on an annual basis, we're being asked to spend almost 20 times more on killing in Afghanistan than it is claimed that we don't have to help stop Africa and Haiti from being decimated by AIDS.
Or, to put it another way: if we could end the war in Afghanistan, then every year we'd save $99 billion compared to the world in which the war continues. We could use $5.6 billion to pay what we owe on controlling the AIDS epidemic, and have $93.4 billion left for domestic job creation, tax cuts, going to the beach, whatever ya want.
But it's not just about the money. It's also about focus. The stupid, cruel, brutal, and pointless war in Afghanistan is sucking up political oxygen that could be used for good - like combating poverty and disease.
And we know how to the end the war. The war will start to wind down as soon as the U.S. agrees to the policy of establishing a timetable for military withdrawal and begins serious negotiations with the senior leadership of Afghanistan's insurgencies.
Members of Congress could easily do something about this. They could pledge to vote no on $33 billion for more war, and they could sign on as co-sponsors to the Feingold-McGovern bill, which would require the President to establish a timetable for military withdrawal. Already, nearly half of the House Democratic Caucus is on the bill.
And President Obama could easily do something about this too. When he meets with President Karzai today, he could agree to President Karzai's request that the U.S. should fully back Afghan government peace talks with the Afghan Taliban, as leaders of the U.S. peace movement are calling on Obama to do.
Meanwhile, AIDS treatment advocates are fighting back against the apparent decision of U.S. officials to "cut and run" from the fight against AIDS in Africa. Tomorrow night, activists will confront President Obama and Speaker Pelosi at a $15,000 per person dinner in New York. Many of these activists are the same folks that forced President Clinton and Vice-President Gore to get off their hands on treatment for global AIDS in the late 1990s. With public support, they will prevail.
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17 Comments so far
Show AllDidn't the Bush administration actually have a sane and compassionate African AIDS program--the one bright spot in an otherwise dark time? Depressing that the dems would cut that funding.
Another example that Obama is the perfect 1970s era republican.
Unfortunately, the puppetmasters are manuevering for that occultic population figure listed via the Georgia Guidestones. We must stop the psychopathy!
Choose non-compliance, raise your voice, pray for those who wish to eradicate humanity and our beautiful blue Earth.
Hi purrson,
I too choose not to comply with killing. How are you succeeding in not complying?
Onecaptjim;Exactly and the underlining the big words.Thank you,Tony
Who in Congress besides Kucinich will have the courage, as well as the common sense, to realize that the only timetable worth considering is the immediate withdrawal of all American soldiers and mercenaries, as well as military bases, from Afghanistan and Iraq? That withdrawal should begin not in 2012, not in 2011, not in six months, but NOW. The lives of the people of Afghanistan and Iraq demand nothing less. Along with that immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces should also be a promise from Obama that no more drone missiles will be launched against any more Third World countries.
Fat chance! First of all, nobody in power, including Obama and Kucinich, have the guts to do the right thing(s). Look at the way Kucinich capitulated at the last minute and voted for the enacting of the toxic piece of legislature that passes for a "Healthcare Reform" Bill, and, secondly, Obama's revealed the kind of person that HE really and truly is by appointing people to his Cabinet and Administration that helped get us into this mess in the first place. Also, his most recent nomination to the US Supreme Court is yet another example of this.
There's always money available to kill people. But to save lives, well that would cost too much...
Despicable.
it's all about priorities -
and when your country is run by sociopathic vampires why the hell would they care about life when death is sooooooo much more fun? and profitable.....
i worked in mozambique for a year way back when - the reagan devil working in concert with the apartheid south africa destroyed what the portuguese didn't -
all with the help of the Red Cross when it was run by elizbeth dole.....
as i said why care about life and sustainability when death and destruction pays better and is funner (for sociopaths)
and obomba has PROVEN to be a war pig now many times over....
endless war
no constitutional guarantees when you are named a terrorist
no ban on landmines
drill baby drill
nuclear power is the new "clean energy" - even though over 1/3 of the current nuke power plants are leaking....
NOTHING but total death and destruction for the entire planet will make these freaks happy.....
NOTHING!
Visiting Professor said "think, instead, we ought to all go build a sand castle at the beach and watch the waves come in and wash it away."
I think we should build this castle out of money and let it float across the sea to all those places in need. They'll have as much, or maybe even better, a chance of getting it that way as from our government.
Paper notes? Which indicate what exactly?? Maybe that we're temporarily part of the scam.
The only genuine currency we possess is our divine right of free agency and our desire for the welfare of all humanity. Exercise that!! All else will fail.
What a twisted non article.
Nobody is getting filthy rich helping people fight AIDS around the world, which is why the program has little support in Congress. If the doctors could afford to bribe a few influential Congress members, funding would be no problem.
Have you been asleep for the past few decades? We have been in the midst of a massive redistribution of the country's wealth. Taxpayer dollars have been pulled out of human needs funding to cover two costs: our serial wars (which have continued with little break since WWll) and paying off the tax bills owed by the rich. (Such "tax relief" only means that taxes owed by the very rich/corps are passed along to ordinary people. You pay so the rich don't have to.) Americans yawned with indifference when govt ended welfare to help finance massive "tax relief" for the rich, knowing the inevitable consequences, but not giving a damn. So, why would they care about a few thousand people with AIDS, or anyone else that might increase their annual taxes by a few cents?
President Obama is NOT a 1970s era Republican. Did you know that back then, not only did Republicans support social safety net funding(if sometimes grudgingly), for example, but they pointed out how a legitimate welfare system saves money, increases social stability and increases productivity. Our most "generous" and least punitive welfare programs were put into place by Richard Nixon. Real workers' rights and protections existed in the '70s, until the Reagan admin. Our Dem presidents since then have shown no interest in restoring those protections. Compared to Clinton, Obama or our general Dem Party leadership, Nixon was a leftist radical!
PS: Get over the "greatest nation on Earth" motto. It no longer applies. We aren't the richest, most powerful, best-educated or freest. We imprison a greater percentage of our population than any other modern country, often for offenses that simply don't get prison time elsewhere, and we impose some of the longest prison sentences. We have some of the most extreme economic disparities and highest rates of illiteracy. Our education system is inferior to that of many nations. Class mobility is almost gone. US life expectancy has been on a downhill slide as fewer people can afford health care. An increasing portion of our jobs don't pay a living wage, and most of our workers' unions have been crushed out of existence. We are certainly not the richest or freest country, and when was the last time the US won a war? So... what are we greatest at???