Gay Today: World

Clinton Designates AIDS a Threat to National Security

Compiled By GayToday

Washington, D.C.—President William J Clinton has formally declared AIDS to be a threat to the National Security of the United States. The disease, spreading through the global community, could quite conceivably bring down national governments, ignite ethnic wars and destroy decades of work in which free-market democracies have been nurtured.

Fifteen years ago veteran gay and AIDS activist Bob Kunst, founder of CURE AIDS NOW, had predicted just such a grim scenario.

Today, the National Security Council, involved for the first time in combating an infectious illness, is taking a new look at the U.S. government's outmoded and often counter-productive approaches to AIDS.

A doubling of the President's budget requests $254 million for combating AIDS on foreign soil and for creating a White House interagency working group. This group will work to develop new initiatives for combating the disease.

Top officials and some members of Congress foresee the need for high spending levels. Those taking part in the new effort recognize it as "tardy and not commensurate with the size of the crisis."

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United States intelligence reports governments and societies, particularly in Africa At great risk. A National Intelligence Estimate projects that a quarter of southern Africa's population will die of AIDS. Persons succumbing to the disease will rise significantly in number for a decade. Based on current statistics, major disasters also loom in Southeast Asia and the former Soviet Union.