Many Witnessed The Beginning

"At this point, we do not have evidence that a pandemic is imminent. Most of the people in Southeast Asia who got sick were handling infected birds.”

President Bush, Nov. 1, 2005


President Bush went to say that if we wait for a pandemic to appear it would already be too late. Such is the state of the AIDS pandemic today. During the Reagan administration there was ample time to take measures to not stop the pandemic but to take control of it, to educate the world and to take actions to create medication to treat it.
Today the democratic minority leader Harry Reid called a closed session to the senate to explore the pre-war intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq. This was a dramatic move that caught the eye of every news organization in the world. Much has been said on both sides and the answers do need to be found but I ask you where was the call for a closed session on how to handle the mounting death toll of the AIDS virus after the death toll had reached one million or two?
In this country there is so much unrest over a few thousand dead. In the events of 9/11 we lost almost 3,000 people. Thus far in our current war in Iraq we have lost 2025 soldiers currently. These are disturbing numbers to be sure and in no way do I make light of their deaths. But millions have died around the world because of the AIDS Mr. President and I fear it may be too late.

- Chris Mansel