Crisis

I must confess that I though that President Clinton’s naming of AIDS as a national security threat seemed overblown to me at the time. I thought, yes, it is a serious global health problem, but come on, national security? It seemed a lip-biting moment. I stand corrected and big time. Foreign Affairs has a scary story. Here’s the FA summary:

SUMMARY
In the decades ahead, the center of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic is set to shift from Africa to Eurasia. The death toll in that region's three pivotal countries--Russia, India, and China--could be staggering. This will assuredly be a humanitarian tragedy, but it will be much more than that. The disease will alter the economic potential of the region's major states and the global balance of power. Moscow, New Delhi, and Beijing could take steps to mitigate the disaster--but so far they have not.

The idea that nuclear-armed powers jammed up against each other with a lot of hostility and jealousy to make that short missile flight time seem really worrying, is horrifying. And with weaker neighbors who might take the brunt of a foreign adventure to distract from internal rot, the consequences are truly staggering.

Combating AIDS should rank right up with securing weapons grade nuclear material and Russia’s large nuclear warhead stockpile. God help us if this plague inspires some nuts to argue it is God’s judgment that they suffer; and only conquest and killing their enemies can erase the sin and prove their worth.

Have I mentioned lately that the French make me sick? No? I’m overdue. No particular article to cite, but I’ve been reading plenty lately about the French desire to thwart our invasion of Iraq, their own unilateral moves in the EU and in Africa, and their disgusting defense of Saddam’s vicious regime. I hope that in the next state of the union address, the President names France as part of an “Axis of Truly Bitchy Countries that Think They Matter.” We will then embark on a policy of Regime Ignore, paying them no heed on any policy from missile defense to Truffle Blight. But hey, cooperating with brutal dictators isn’t exactly a shocking new capability for the French. I’m sure French advisors are even now preparing how to guides for the Iraqi Baath Party thugs so they can prove they were with the Iraqi resistance once we overthrow the Saddam regime.