Quote Originally Posted by Uboat509 View Post
I would have to disagree with the second part of your statement there. That is an awful lot of money to feel good about ourselves.
Why do you think that the money we spend on AIDS gets so much more attention than, say, money spent on controlling malaria? Is that not because AIDS is an issue and a problem with greater resonance for Americans?

Quote Originally Posted by Uboat509 View Post
That kind of money has an ulterior motive attached to it. Someone more cynical than me might suspect an attempt by a Republican president to curry favor with centrist voters but I believe that it is more about trying to gain some control of the narrative in Africa. China is increasingly visible in Africa, often at our expense. Combating AIDS is a fairly low risk investment to rebuild our political capital in Africa. Compared to economic development or conflict resolution it is relatively straight forward and uncontroversial with little chance that we will find ourselves on the wrong side of an issue. Whether we are getting a good return on our investment is debatable but, based on my experience in Africa, we are at least getting some return.
If that's the goal I suspect we'll be disappointed. Aid of any sort will never bring the kind of influence or favor that investment brings, and I don't think anything we do about AIDS will give us real political capital in Africa or "gain some control of the narrative in Africa".