The many lives saved by George W Bush

Nicholas Kristof writes in the NY Times:

I opposed the Iraq war. I also covered it and reported on the misuse of intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the war. I hammered Bush for the eight years he was in office over Iraq, torture, Guantánamo, Darfur, reproductive health and so much more. And the best policy by an American president? I’d argue that it was something else that Bush did that constitutes his most important legacy and that we in the media under-covered. At the same time that Bush was planning the Iraq war, he was also starting the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, a global effort to turn the tide of the AIDS epidemic. PEPFAR continues to this day and has saved 25 million lives worldwide so far. Think about that: 25 million lives. What can compare with that? When Bush rolled out this initiative, he wasn’t reacting to pressure from Democrats, and he didn’t gain any political benefit. The American public is still mostly unaware of PEPFAR. My take is that we in the media bungled things in both directions: We were insufficiently skeptical of the Iraq war in the run-up to it, and then we were insufficiently attuned to something that Bush did that was actually heroic.I know, I know. This messes with our heads. How can I, as a good liberal, accept that the most important humanitarian initiative by the United States in modern times wasn’t organized by some progressive Democrat whom I admire but rather by an evangelical Republican whom I disagree with on almost everything?

25 million lives saved is a pretty good legacy.