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Jewish World Review Feb. 22, 2001 / 29 Shevat, 5761
Chris Matthews
If Europe were hit with such ghastly casualties,
would America be sitting on the sidelines? If the
lands of white America's roots - England, Ireland,
Germany, Italy, Poland - faced a global predator
capable of such horror, would we avert our glance?
You, the reader, know the answer. As in 1914 and
1939, this country would be hot with debate - what
should we do? How can we help our friends fight
this murderous fiend?
I speak, for those still unaware, not of Europe at the
advent of World War I or II but of sub-Saharan
Africa at the outbreak of World War III.
The fatality lists on that continent have entered the
same horrendous league. Seventeen million Africans
have died of AIDS; 25 million are infected with
HIV. If this war continues for even a few more
years, it will kill more humans on the African
continent than the 50 million who died on every
front and death camp in World War II.
What will America do this time? Will we wait, as
we did in the years before Pearl Harbor, hoping the
danger might be arrested somewhere beyond our
shores?
Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke this week for
the opposing view.
"AIDS is a national security problem. It is a
devastating problem in sub- Saharan Africa.
Millions of people are at risk. Millions of people will
die no matter what we do. This creates a major
problem for Africa and other parts of the world
where AIDS is spreading.
"It is a pandemic. It requires our attention, and
Congress has to be generous."
The question is whether the United States will apply
the same Powell doctrine to fighting AIDS in Africa
that we did confronting Saddam Hussein in the
Persian Gulf. Will we build the necessary popular
support for the campaign here at home? Will we
bring the overwhelming force needed to destroy the
enemy in the field?
So far, the only government battalions fighting on
the front lines are intrepid contingents of the Peace
Corps.
Volunteers in South Africa, Lesotho and
neighboring nations are teaching men how to use
condoms and women how to resist them when they
don't. They are helping the orphans of AIDS victims
learn work skills that could ensure their survival.
Beyond their assigned jobs, many Peace Corps
volunteers are providing care to the HIV-infected
themselves.
But the flood of HIV and AIDS is, tragically, of
biblical might. It attacks young adults, including the
continent's best and brightest, those on whose
shoulders its struggling nations most depend. These
include the hard-working miners who spend months
away from their wives and the young,
better-educated civil servants also assigned to
remote posts.
For Powell and for President Bush, the question is:
Who will lead this fight in Africa? If not the United
States, this country of huge medical might and
historic wealth, then who? And if AIDS in Africa is
a threat to our national security, as Powell has
determined, who should carry the U.S. banner?
I suggest President Bush's predecessor, William
Jefferson Clinton. His new offices in Harlem would
give him an excellent command post from which to
champion the American campaign against a global
menace that is killing at greater number and
efficiency than Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini
combined.
02/12/01: Crusaders
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