Bad news follows Bush in Botswana
Bush flew into Gaborone from South Africa to highlight his emergency $15 billion plan to combat AIDS and spotlight Botswana's diamond-fuelled economy, viewed by Washington as a rare African example of good governance.
Smiling broadly, Bush was serenaded at the airport by a school choir and bobbed in time to the beat of a traditional marimba percussion band.
But the mood soon turned sombre, as after two more US soldiers were killed in Iraq, Bush admitted his government had a security headache.
"There is no question we have got a security issue in Iraq," Bush said after meeting Botswanan President Festus Mogae.
"We are just going to have to deal with it person by person. We are going to have to remain tough," said Bush, on the third leg of a five-nation African tour.
Two US soldiers in Iraq were killed and another was wounded in separate overnight attacks, the US military said yesterday, correcting an earlier statement that three had been killed.
Bush was forced to address the Iraq situation a day after ducking questions over his use of flawed intelligence on Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons programme in his State of the Union address in January.
HIV and AIDS in Botswana, where adult infection rates are the highest in the world at nearly 40%, figured large in Bush's talks with Mogae.
"The first thing I want the leadership in Africa to know is that the American people care deeply about the pandemic that sweeps across this continent, the pandemic of HIV/AIDS," Bush told reporters.
He said his initiative was an indication of the "good heart" of the American people.
"We are not only a powerful nation, we are a compassionate nation."
"We cry for the orphan, we care for the mom who is alone. We are concerned about the plight and therefore we respond as generously as we can."
Bush's AIDS plan for Africa and the Caribbean, rolled out with massive fanfare by the White House, has yet to be financed by Congress, and many observers feel it is unlikely it will amount to the full $15 billion over five years that Bush has promised.
AIDS has exacted a terrible toll in Botswana, slashing life expectancy from 67 to 42 years.
There are 69,000 AIDS orphans in a population of under two million people, and many more children are cursed by the disease, which has blighted Africa more than any other part of the world.
Despite that, Botswana has recorded impressive growth rates in its diamond-based economy an achievement Bush said was due to the solid leadership of the 63-year-old Mogae, who has been in power since 1998.
"You have demonstrated sure, sound economic administration and fiscal discipline, and a commitment to free market principles," Bush told his host in a luncheon toast.
Mogae replied that Bush's help proved that the United States was a "true and dependable partner".
During the six-hour trip to Botswana, Bush was also due to visit US embassy employees, and tour a nature reserve and a US-financed trade and investment centre.
Some AIDS activists accuse the White House of artificially inflating the $15 billion total of its AIDS programme by including existing spending, and say the administration has made a mockery of the "emergency" prefix by not acting quickly enough.
"The days go by and we still see no real emergency plan," said Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance.
"President Bush is undermining America's credibility in the world by failing to live up to his State of the Union pledge."
The US Congress was due to consider funding for the plan this week, as Bush toured Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria.
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