Positives From W.

I found this article in the "Minnesota Law & Politics" magazine and found it interesting. It's titled "Let Us Now Praise Infamous Men: Ten Reasons to Appreciate George W. Bush." Now before you go and assume it's some Republican hack writing the article I'll let you know that the publisher of this magazine is one of the biggest donors to the Democrat party in the state. It's a fairly bi-partisan magazine, but it's owned by liberal lawyers.

I still think that in 20 years W.'s presidency will be viewed much better than it is now. But that's for the future. Anyways, here goes the top 10:

1) He has spent more than $3 billion a year in the fight against AIDS. PEPFAR, his emergency plan for AIDS relief in Africa, could save more than 9 million lives.

2) He created the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, the largest single area dedicated to conservation in the history of the U.S., and the largest protected marine area in the world.

3) The Bush administration has elevated sex trafficking onto the international agenda. John Miller, Bush's point man for this issue, hectored and sanctioned foreign countries into curbing this form of modern slavery.

4) He started a major new foreign-aid program - the Millennium Challenge Account - that gives large sums to countries selected for t heir good governance and, according to "New York Times" columnist Nick Kristof, hardly a Bush-lover, reflects from top to bottom smart new approaches to foreign aid.

5) He has begun to focus attention and funds on malaria, a disease that kills more than 1 million people a year, imposing a huge economic burden, particularly in Africa.

6) He has the largest minority representation in the Cabinet and in key White House posts of any president in history.

7) He doubled the research budget of the National Institutes of Health.

8) He has begun to withdraw U.S. troops from Bosnia and has announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Germany and the Korean DMZ.

9) He disarmed Libya of its chemical, nuclear and biological weapons without bloodshed.

10) He increased low-interest loan programs to help people with disabilities purchase devices they need to assist them.

I'd like to add one more item to the list: There has not been another attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. That's pretty remarkable if you ask me and is directly attributed to W.'s approach to fighting terrorism. You can argue the different aspects of the fight and what's right and wrong, but you can't deny that our country has not been attacked and that's a pretty significant accomplishment.