I am a person unaffiliated with organized religion. However, I have often found reasons to admire the spirit of helpfulness embraced by some people of faith. The idea of a missionary “spreading the word” makes me want to scream “Go Home!” But, when a believer visits another country with the express purpose of helping, I am the first to applaud. Helping people with farming techniques, water projects, building homes, and providing medical assistance are wonderful efforts. Echoes of Jimmy Carter. Hear me cheer.
There was another president who I will always consider to be a war criminal. George W. Bush was instrumental in the deaths and displacement of millions of people in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two stupid wars, thousands of American service people dead or suffering from PTSD, injuries and burn pit health issues. Trillions of taxpayer money up in smoke with nothing to show for it but failure and shame. History assigns “W” a legacy of brutal and foolish foreign policy. He should be in prison.
And yet. Ironies abound. This war mongering fool has another side to him that we should recognize. He is capable of empathy and compassion.
What was George W. Bush's immigration policy?
“Since January 2004, President Bush called for comprehensive immigration reform that would enhance border security, bring illegal aliens out of the shadows, establish a temporary worker program, hold employers accountable for the workers they hire, and facilitate the assimilation of new Americans.”
But what started me thinking about “W” was not just immigration. It was his signature achievement called PEPFAR. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. He didn’t demonize people with HIV around the world. He helped them. Estimates are that this program has saved over 25 million lives. The cost per U.S. taxer is about $37 per year. The cost of a burger and a beer in my town (with tip). The impact on U.S. foreign policy has been enormously positive.
President Trump has declared an “America First” agenda and has defunded PEPFAR. Sentencing children to death. Creating an international void which will be filled by the likes of Saudi Arabia, Russia and China.
Ya just can’t fix stupid…and cruel.
One man (with the support of the Project 2025 authors now embedded in our government) has made a decision that will lead to the awful suffering and deaths of millions of people as a preventable disease is allowed to run rampant again. Efforts to combat HIV were on track to virtually eliminate it by 2030.
And now. From KFF:
A 90-day PEPFAR funding pause and associated service disruptions could result in over 100,000 excess HIV-related deaths over a year in sub-Saharan Africa.
Ending PEPFAR could result in up to 11 million additional new HIV infections and nearly 3 million additional AIDS-related deaths by 2030 across 26 countries. Another study found that ending funding in all 55 PEPFAR-funded countries could result in an additional 16 million deaths and 26 million new HIV infections by 2040.
An additional 2-4 million deaths could occur each year in sub-Saharan Africa.
George W. Bush has a complex legacy for a guy who many considered simple minded. Johnson declared war on poverty and signed into law groundbreaking civil rights legislation. But he also continued a horrific and ill conceived war. Until now, most of our presidents have had mixed records.
But so far, President Trump is on track to have a simple legacy of cruelty. Will he ever do anything to be remembered favorably like his predecessors? Thousands of little kids are starving in Gaza and he wants to build a resort over their graves. Millions of people in Africa and elsewhere are on a path to death because he uses a sharpie to rip away essential life saving funds.
And now, the same guy who called fallen soldiers “suckers and losers” and is cutting 83,000 jobs at the Veterans Administration will ask us to spend at least $45 million on a military parade (June 14th) - $16 million just to repair the roadways that will be ripped up. You do the math on how many kids that could feed. The president called $45 million “peanuts”.
Veterans will protest in the Capitol June 6th at 2:00. If you can’t be there, consider your own pop up protest in your town. I think my sign will simply say “Veterans Deserve Better - Not Worse”.
June 14th protests will be powerfully symbolic. Find an event near you. I am still designing that sign. Or maybe I’ll just use the one from a previous protest: “No King, Stop the Chaos and Cruelty!”
https://www.hiv.gov/federal-response/pepfar-global-aids/pepfar
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/pepfar-delivers-outsized-returns-it-deserves-more-funding/
https://www.bushcenter.org/publications/sustaining-pepfars-success-beyond-2030
https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/11/11/trump-soldiers-suckers-losers/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/5-reasons-federal-cuts-are-hitting-veterans-especially-hard
https://www.nokings.org/
Thanks, Bill. There at least was some compassion in GW. You may not know, but I am from Texas and the area where GW got his start in politics. I have friends who knew GW and stated that when he announced he would seek the POTUS, that he would be invading Iraq within 18 months. He had said to them that he was going to get the "Man that tried to kill his daddy." The thing that stopped him temporarily was 9/11. I always wonder if 9/11 had not happened, if GW would have been a one term POTUS considering the unpopularity of the Iraq war. A lot of money and lives would have been saved from the war.
Sigh….why, I will never know, do US voters always(it seems to me) elect « The Daddy » candidates. Even females must have sufficient god-fearing testosterone.
What allows Mexican voters to have, and elect, a candidate as their current president? She would not even have been allowed in a presidential debate here.
Finding the time when our broken clock leaders do something ok, misses the reality that we always destroy progressive candidates.
Gary Hart had a women on his lap; Howard Dean screamed; Patrica Schroeder wasn’t named Patrick…. Better candidates exist, but