DAVOS, Switzerland -- Former President Bill Clinton yesterday questioned the Bush administration's $80 billion request to finance the war in Iraq when ''a pittance" of that amount would allow the United States to double its aid and help end massive poverty in Africa.
Others at the World Economic Forum, including
''You want to go save 4 million lives?" Clinton said. ''Give them the medicine. It's not rocket science, and it's so cheap compared to everything else all these rich countries do.
''Anybody who says we shouldn't do this because there's corruption and incompetence should be put in a closet. I mean, this is ridiculous."
Meeting the United Nations goal of cutting global poverty in half by 2015 was a top issue, although Middle East peace, bioterrorism, and oil prices shared the spotlight yesterday at the World Economic Forum's annual gathering of top business executives, politicians, and social leaders.
Vice Premier Shimon Peres of Israel said the recent Palestinian effort to move toward peace ''exceeds our expectations," and he expected Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to meet the new Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, in ''days, not weeks."
''I think we can move faster than we thought earlier -- faster and better if nothing wrong will occur," Peres said in Davos, a ski resort in the Swiss Alps.
The panel attracting the biggest audience yesterday featured Clinton, Blair, Gates, the presidents of South Africa and Nigeria, and U2 rock singer Bono discussing whether the seven wealthiest nations and Russia -- the Group of Eight -- will take action to end poverty in Africa.
A report to the UN this month concluded that poverty can be cut in half by 2015 and eliminated by 2025 if the world's richest countries, including the United States, Japan, and Germany, more than double aid to the poorest countries.
At stake is life or death for tens of millions of people, it said.
''We need this critical mass of resources to make a change, to make a difference," President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria said.
Blair, who is making Africa a focus of his leadership of the G-8 this year, said the continent's plight is ''a scar on the conscience of the world." He reiterated his call for an African Commission to analyze what is wrong and prescribe how ''to put it right."
''The absolutely key thing is to agree that the end objective is a very substantial uplift in aid," he said.
Gates, who has amassed an estimated $48 billion as founder of Microsoft, said millions of children in Africa could be saved if there were enough resources.
