An humanitarian fig leaf, meant to soften the hard edges of the Bush Doctrine with some of that glamor of Clintonian internationalism - a five day five country photo op that will position Bush for the coming election, as having gone Clinton 15 billion dollars better in the humanitarian concern department?
As ever with this administration, the actual policy is something less than advertised. Back in May, Jeanne at Body & Soul told us what the deceptions are in the Aids initiative.
Well, it just gets better.
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Bush's 'surreal' choice for AIDS czar
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - US President George W Bush's "surprise" choice of a former top executive of a major US pharmaceutical company and major Republican contributor as his global AIDS coordinator has drawn expressions of concern and even outrage among Africa and AIDS activists here.
Bush's choice of former Eli Lilly & Co boss Randall Tobias was announced on Tuesday at the White House, just four days before Bush's first trip as president to Africa. The nomination must be confirmed by the US Senate.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs, head of Columbia University's Earth Institute and a special advisor to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the AIDS crisis, called the appointment "surreal". "This is an emergency that requires someone who's worked in the field and knows it thoroughly. We don't need someone who raises all sorts of questions about commitment and agenda," he said.
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A corporate executive throughout his career, Tobias has no background in public health and little or no experience of working in poor countries. In short remarks at the White House on Tuesday, he described the statistics of the AIDS toll taken in Africa - where almost 20 million people have been killed by the disease - as "really nearly incomprehensible".
At the same time, Tobias is known as a no-nonsense businessman who is particularly close to the recently departed director of the administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a bureaucracy that could play a key role in securing the money to actually fund Bush's 15-billion-dollar program.
Being the good reporter he is, Jim Lobe stacks no decks, and includes a possible scenario in which Tobias uses his cache, as a major player in Corporate Circles, pretty much the only circles our CEO President respects, to get something real done.