In Zambia, U.S. Goals in Gulf Are Foreign

L U S A K A, Zambia, March 29 -- Zambians have never known war in their nearly 40-year existence as a people free from colonial rule. That does not mean, of course, that they are not fighters.

Most Zambians wage a daily struggle for food and health. The vast majority — 80 percent — live on less than $1 a day. And the prices of food, gas, housing, and even the daily newspaper at 50 cents a copy, do not reflect the paltry earning power of most here.

More than 3 million people, or about a third of the entire population, suffer from malaria, still Zambia's No. 1 killer. An estimated 20 percent of the population are HIV-positive. Treatment with anti-retrovirals is only for the privileged few.

There is only one machine in Lusaka, the capital, that can measure an HIV patient's "viral load," a critical gauge of the progression of the deadly virus.

Comparing HIV to 9/11 Attacks

Given these grim statistics, then, you could forgive the Zambians if they do not understand why war is so necessary in the Persian Gulf, and why the West does not pay more attention to their pressing needs.

"People are dying of AIDS and hunger. Why doesn't America come here and fight AIDS and hunger?" said Moses Mutale of Kitwe, who was one of scores to gather at an anti-war rally in the nation's economically battered Copperbelt mining region late last week.

Winston Zulu, an AIDS activist in Lusaka who is living with HIV himself, compared the disease's carnage here with the destruction wrought by the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

"It's really like 9/11 happening every week, you know what I mean? Yeah. Only OK, there's no big bang, there's no dust, there's no fire and all that. But if you go to the burial ground you see a lot of dust because a lot of vehicles are going there."

War Chipping Away at Livelihoods

In Zambia's great tourism hope, the town of Livingstone near Victoria Falls, one of the world's seven natural wonders, some locals suspect the war has already begun to chip away at their already meager livelihoods.