President Bush Should Rethink Donation to Global Fund, Newark Star-Ledger Editorial Says

President Bush's approval of the international AIDS law is a "bittersweet victory" because although the measure authorizes $15 billion over five years to go to the fight against AIDS, the plan calls for most of it to go to a U.S.-directed program, not into the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, according to a Newark Star-Ledger editorial. The editorial says that if Bush is "serious about his commitment, he will ... rethink his plan to give only a fraction of that $15 billion to the Global Fund." With the current plan, "Bush has set a precedent for a divided international campaign. That fragmentation is almost guaranteed to waste time, money and lives," the Star-Ledger says. The editorial concludes, "A large, sustained U.S. contribution is essential for buying medicine and personnel -- and for getting other prosperous nations to make their own fair-share commitments. The others know their money cannot buy success unless the richest nation in the world is in the fight with them. We cannot do it alone. They cannot do it without us" (Newark Star-Ledger, 5/30).