|
HOSPITALS IN IRAN? TOMMY'S FAREWELL TO BUSH
by John-David Morgan
Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson will leave his post as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services this week, bidding farewell to Washington and the Bush Administration cabinet. On the way out, Thompson dished up some of his views on the state of American diplomacy, calling for a policy of "medical diplomacy." Thompson told Journal Sentinel Washington, D.C. Bureau scribe Craig Gilbert that this involves the U.S. "using our tremendous medical expertise to give our medical assistance to all the places where we're fighting the wars, areas that are tinderboxes."
"I look at the fact they scrapped a $35 billion helicopter, the Comanche helicopter, after they'd expended $ billion," Thompson told Gilbert. "And I think to myself, how many wells could I dig with $8 billion. How many clinics could I open? How many hospitals could I build in Afghanistan, Iraq or Palestine or Iran or Sudan with that kind of money? And it's a much more lasting, permanent effect than sending troops in and trying to quell terrorists."
While that sounds like an open criticism and an alternative to his soon-to-be-ex-boss's plans to continue with a global military build-up, Thompson said it wasn't. But, he added: "There has to be a better way of doing our relationships with these countries. The better way is medical diplomacy."
That's a big "but" coming from an outgoing Bush cabinet member at a time when Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is under fire for botching the Iraq invasion. Thompson’s comments also came just prior to Bush's inaugural announcement that the occupation of Iraq will last another five years, and his declaration of U.S. plans to increase U.S. global military presence. Building hospitals was not mentioned as part of the Bush America’s democracy-with-a-big-stick stance toward Iran, North Korea and Cuba, to name a few nations on the president's growing "axis of evil" list.
|
