The problem with poor women around the world is they haven't bought any full-page ads pledging support for America's war on terror. That, and they don't control any oil.
These factors seem to determine who gets President Bush's support these days on the world stage. Hold news conferences denouncing al-Qaida, keep the wells pumping and the barrels coming, and the president will overlook a multitude of other blood-curdling sins.
Don't, and he just might sacrifice you at the first opportunity, even if your only offense is poverty.
That's Realpolitik in 2002 America.
So what if Saudi Arabia, for example, produced almost all of the Sept. 11 hijackers? The sheiks are putting on a public face of cooperation now, and they do control an awful lot of black gold, so -- what the heck -- let's let bygones be bygones.
But when it comes to saving the lives of destitute women around the world who have virtually no control over their own destinies, suddenly the perceived purity of their government is the only deal-breaker.
That's why Bush this week carried through on his threat to withhold $34 million in approved funding for the United Nations Population Fund.
It was a cheap way to curry favor with the extreme right wing of his party. It also makes this much official: The man who likes to talk tough to America's enemies abroad is spineless when it comes to standing up to his so-called friends at home.
Last year, Bush himself proposed allocating $25 million for the organization -- $3.5 million more than was given by the Clinton administration in its last year. Lawmakers later agreed on $34 million, and Bush signed the appropriations bill into law.
But Congress failed to require that the money be released. And then the lunatic fringe that helped Bush get elected started making noise. They charged that the population fund supports forced abortions in China. So a fact-finding team from the U.S. State Department went to China to find out if this was true.
The team came back and reported that it was not true.
The U.N. fund does not support, advise, enable or perform forced abortions, they said. (It bears noting here that the fund does not support abortions period, in China or anywhere else, in keeping with the prohibition in its own charter.)
The president could have, should have used that report as cover and released the money as planned. Instead, he ignored the report and spiked the appropriation.
Bush can't very well claim a natural skepticism of official investigations. After all, he has repeatedly pointed to the findings of the Securities and Exchange Commission clearing him of insider trading in Texas.
Every time the press questions him about his serendipitous sale of Harken Energy Corp. stock just two months before the company reported millions of dollars in losses in 1990, he refers to that report as vindication. Would that he imbued the State Department report with the same legitimacy.
This $34 million would have paid for family planning efforts across the globe. It would have prevented unwanted pregnancies, which in turn prevents abortions.
It would have built and equipped maternity clinics and trained midwives. It would have saved women from dying in childbirth for lack of a clean piece of plastic to put on the ground, a clean razor blade and string to cut the cord and tie it off.
It would have supported medical checkups for them and their children, helped them obtain clean water and decent nutrition, and thus avoid a staggering number of deaths from preventable disease.
It should have been a no-brainer for a man who calls himself "pro-life." Instead, he's letting a small group of reactionaries withhold this simple, basic and inexpensive care to women in Africa, Afghanistan, India, Asia -- all because of bogus accusations about what goes on in China.
Now members of Congress say they're going to try to overturn Bush's decision. And last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to send $50 million to the program next year -- this time with a requirement that the president release the money.
If those poor women are smart, though, they'll get busy discovering oil and denouncing Osama bin Laden anyway. In these days of Realpolitik, an insurance policy always comes in handy.
Sally Kalson's e-mail is:skalson@post-gazette.com
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