Exhibiting strength
America needs to continue to show the world our heart in the form of humanitarian aid.
Houstonian Beth Wachira, a native of Kenya and a volunteer for RESULTS Education Fund, a global nonprofit, lost her parents too young. Both contracted HIV/AIDS, which lead to her mother’s tuberculosis and her father’s suicide. It could have been worse, though. Wachira’s sister contracted HIV years ago. She credits her sister’s life to medications received from George W. Bush’s emergency program to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa.
“George W. Bush did something remarkable,” Wachira told the Chronicle editorial board.
President Donald Trump’s recently released budget plan, which would slash international assistance, ignores a key lesson learned from the last GOP administration. While Bush’s military intervention and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan produced, at best, mixed results, his administration’s assistance in the fight against HIV/ AIDS in Africa is universally acclaimed.
The lesson: The world is safer when the U.S. shows the world our nation’s heart and not just its biceps.
Trump’s new budget proposes to reduce diplomatic and humanitarian aid budgets by about 32 percent, or nearly $19 billion, according to Reuters. These cuts are designed to enable even larger increases in U.S. military spending. Few dispute the importance of national security. Yet U.S. military spending already exceeds the defense budgets of the next eight nations combined.
Trump should reconsider his illconceived budget cuts to diplomacy and development. Destabilized societies dealing with lack of opportunity leave desperate people ripe for recruitment by extremists. The spread of global diseases poses another threat — to Americans and the rest of the world. Global problems require global solutions.
In international affairs, our country has historically relied on soft power to lead in a way that commands the respect of the world. After World War II, in the face of economic destruction and despair, President Harry Truman launched the Marshall Plan to combat communism and foster growth, development and hope. As Truman knew then, military power is mightier when combined with the influence of moral authority. We cannot police a world of more than 7 billion people, but at least we can help point the world in the right direction.
One hundred and twenty-one retired three-and four-star generals and officers from all branches of the armed services recently wrote to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., along with the minority leaders of both houses, to say that elevating and strengthening diplomacy and development alongside defense are critical to keeping America safe.
Like it or not, each American president shapes the image, and ultimately the influence, of the U.S. on the world. Trump beckons heads of state to his lavish Florida resort, where everyone’s eyes are turned to Trump’s wealth. Funding effective humanitarian assistance programs helps people throughout the world to see our nation’s deepest values, rooted in respect for the dignity and importance of each person.
In 2000, when then-Gov. George W. Bush first ran for president, he noted in one national debate: “And our nation stands alone right now in the world in terms of power, and that’s why we’ve got to be humble, and yet project strength in a way that promotes freedom.”
While not all of Bush’s actions exhibited humility, his personal interest in millions of Africans suffering the devastation of HIV/AIDS provides a worthy example of that kind of humble strength. The military can lead the fight against terrorism on the battlefield, but it needs strong civilian partners to combat disease and lack of opportunity that can wreak as much harm as war itself.
Destabilized societies dealing with lack of opportunity leave desperate people ripe for recruitment by extremists.