Potus Geeks Summer Reruns: George W. Bush and Bono
Singer Paul David Hewson is better known to the world by his stage name of Bono. He is an Irish singer and songwriter, an activist, and a philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist of the rock band U2 and he has established a well-deserved reputation as a great humanitarian. Bono was born and raised in Dublin and it was there at Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his future wife, Alison Stewart, as well as schoolmates with whom he formed the band U2 in 1976. His lyrics often include social, political and religious themes, inspired by his Christian beliefs. Bono has received 22 Grammy Awards and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In more recent times he has gained prominence an activist for social justice causes, both through U2 and as an individual. He is a passionate advocate for those in Africa, and he has participated in benefit concerts and lobbied politicians and heads of state for relief for those suffering on that continent. He has been honored for his philanthropic efforts. In 2005, Bono was named one of the Time Magazine Persons of the Year. He was granted an honorary knighthood by Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 2007 for "his services to the music industry and for his humanitarian work", and was made a Commandeur of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) in 2013.
In 2002, Bono paid a visit to the White House with the goal of gaining the support of President George W. Bush for the worldwide fight against HIV/AIDS. The two men's common passion for this cause has led to an unlikely friendship between the liberal U2 front man and the conservative president. Whether it was as a result of Bush's persuasion, or his own compassionate nature, launched the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) the following year, and the program has successfully arranged for the provision of lifesaving drugs to many millions of people in Africa.
Their initial meeting was not one of love at first sight. As Bono recounted in an interview by Jenna Bush Hagar, President Bush's daughter, “Well, he didn’t want to see me, which is fair enough. Different political views and whatever. I was the guy who had to come into the office and get him to look up from his big oak table, there in the Oval Office, to let his values tell him what to do.”
Bono’s close work with George W. Bush was surprising at the time. But Bono has come to be consistent in his praise of the former president for funding PEPFAR. He said, “I think we’ve got to cut through the shenanigans of political cartooning and see that some people can have different views and still be principled people. I’ve become very fond of him. Underneath his armor, there’s passion, compassion. He has it.”
President George W. Bush launched the PEPFAR initiative to combat the spread of AIDS in Africa, a move which addressed one of the greatest pandemics of his generation. It is a program that has saved millions of lives, and one that Bush's critics rarely mention. PEPFAR (the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief) is a governmental initiative designed to address the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and to help save the lives of those suffering from the disease, primarily in Africa. The program's initial goal was to provide anti-retroviral treatment to 2 million HIV-infected people in resource-limited countries in order to prevent millions of new infections, and to support care for 10 million people by 2010. PEPFAR increased the number of Africans receiving anti-retroviral treatment from 50,000 in 2004 to over 1.2 million by early 2008. It is the largest health initiative ever initiated by one country to address a disease. The program has made anti-retrovirals widely available, saving millions of lives. According to a 2009 study published in Annals of Internal Medicine, the program had prevented about 1.1 million deaths in Africa and reduced the death rate due to AIDS in the countries involved by 10%.
In 1998, when George W. Bush considered running for president, his foreign policy adviser (and future Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice suggested that Africa should be a focus of his. In 2002 he commissioned a report, which ultimately was titled "The Next Wave of HIV/AIDS: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Russia, India, and China". It was written by the National Intelligence Council. This report was significant because it discussed the mortality associated with the poorly controlled HIV pandemic across several decades and also forecast the impact of that excess mortality on U.S National Security interests. The U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 (also known as the Global AIDS Act) was passed and it contained a series of goals, identifying measurable outcomes to be reached on the subject of controlling the spread of the disease and providing aid to its victims. The legislation also established the State Department Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator to oversee all international AIDS funding and programming.
In July 2008, PEPFAR was renewed, and expanded to more than triple the initiative's funds, increasing funding to $48 billion through 2013, including $39 billion for HIV and the global Fund, $4 billion for TB, and $5 billion for malaria. In May 2009, the Obama Administration launched the Global Health Initiative (GHI) as an effort to develop a comprehensive U.S. government strategy for global health and it included PEPFAR as a central component.
When PEPFAR was signed into law, 15 countries with high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates and limited resources to combat the disease, were designated to receive the majority of the funding. The 15 "focus countries" were Botswana, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zambia.
When the Bush administration inaugurated the program in 2003, fewer than 50,000 HIV-infected people on the African continent were receiving the antiretroviral drugs needed to keep the virus in check and halt the progression toward full-blown AIDS. By the time Bush left office, the number had increased to nearly 2 million. Today, the United States is directly supporting antiretroviral treatment for more than 4 million men, women and children worldwide, primarily in Africa.
Before PEPFAR, the prevailing theory was that the drug-treatment regimens that were saving lives in developed countries would not work in Africa because poor, uneducated people in these communities could not be counted on to take the right pill at the right time every day. When the drugs are taken haphazardly, the virus mutates and becomes resistant. Critics of PEPFAR's approach argued that trying to administer antiretroviral treatment in poor African countries might actually be worse than doing nothing at all. The Bush administration rejected these arguments. According to a survey by Doctors Without Borders, 11 African countries - including some of the hardest-hit by the epidemic - are providing antiretroviral drug treatment to well over half of their citizens infected with HIV. Treatment not only extends the patient’s life but also decreases the likelihood that he or she will pass the virus to an uninfected person. According to one official from Doctors Without Borders, "the end of the AIDS epidemic is not yet in sight, but it is no longer unimaginable."
Bush's biographer Peter Baker of the New York Times sums up the significance of this accomplishment as follows:
"Bush did more to stop AIDS and more to help Africa than any president before or since. He took on one of the world's biggest problems in a big, bold way and it changed the course of a continent. If it weren't for Iraq, it would be one of the main things history would remember about Bush, and it still should be part of any accounting of his presidency."
The respect and admiration between Bono and Bush is mutual. In an Instagram Post, Bush wrote: "Bono is the real deal. He has a huge heart and a selfless soul, not to mention a decent voice. @laurawbush and I are grateful he came to the ranch to talk about the work of @thebushcenter, @onecampaign, @PEPFAR, and our shared commitment to saving lives in Africa."
Bono said he that one of the things he admires about Bush is the former President's sense of humor. He recounted this anecdote: "We were riding in a motorcade. People were waving from the side of the road, and I said to him, 'Oh, pretty popular. Didn't think you were this popular, Mr. President!' He said, 'When I first came here, they used to wave at me with one finger!'"
In April of 2018 Bono was the recipient of the first George W. Bush Medal for Distinguished Leadership. Bush presented the award to the Irish musician at a gala at the George W. Bush Presidential Center outside Dallas. The award recognized Bono’s humanitarian efforts in fighting poverty and HIV/AIDS, particularly in African countries. At the ceremony Bono paid tribute to former first lady Barbara Bush, who had recently passed away. He applauded her role in helping to de-stigmatize AIDS and recalled the times when she had once held a baby with HIV and embraced an adult man with AIDS. Bono also praised the former president’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which has earned bipartisan support. “You were born of an AIDS activist, sir, and you became one,” Bono told the 43rd president of the U.S. Bono described former first lady Barbara Bush as “the mother of PEPFAR.”
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also attended the gala and recounted how she helped introduce the two men and how she now refers to them as “the odd couple,” two men of diverse backgrounds who have since developed a long-term friendship lasting more than a decade.