see "Solemn ceremony ends terror-tainted summit" (San Diego Union Tribune, 7/9/05)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20050709-9999-1n9summit.html

This week's G-8 meeting in Scotland was overshadowed by the tragic results of murderous militant islamist bombs. It's hard to believe we've come to a time when one says "We're lucky only 50 people died." I hope that intelligence and police services around the world find and infiltrate organzations such as the one that did this and do to them what needs to be done, hopefully in a way that inflicts a serious amount of pain on the terrorists. No need to make their end more quick and comfortable than the end they wish on us.

But that's not what I want to write about today because the "substance" of the G-8 meeting is worth at least one posting.

President Bush owes Tony Blair an enormous political debt for Blair's steadfast support of the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq which nearly cost Blair his job and almost certainly cost his party many seats in the recent parliamentary elections.

It appears that Blair is trying to enhance his legacy by focusing on two issues, poverty and disease in Africa and global warming. These were the main subjects covered at the G-8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland.

Bush's goal at the meeting was to support Blair as much as possible without giving away too much US taxpayer money and in that sense the event was a success for the United States: the summit accomplished little more than writing a few nice words about intentions without specific requirements.

Bush did exactly what he should have by refusing calls for the US to spend 0.7% of GDP on foreign aid; he noted correctly that while other governments spend more than our government, no country comes anywhere near the level of private donations to the developing world that the United States does.

Bush wasn't able to get out of any increase in aid spending, agreeing to take part in an overall doubling of aid to Africa by 2010, as well as debt forgiveness. It's not a huge political price to pay for what Blair has done for us, but let's be clear: Foreign aid keeps poor countries poor, keeps corrupt dictators in power, and is little better than asking Americans to put several billion dollars in a pile each year and burn it.

I have no problem with debt relief; we're probably never going to be paid back anyway. But the best follow-up to debt forgiveness would be to stop offering any government-to-government aid, particularly to governments which do not aggressively enforce property rights in their countries.

Bush was also quite masterful, given the situation, at handling the discussion about global warming. Although mentioning "human factors" in climate change is something I would have preferred he not give legitimacy to, his main point that the Kyoto Treaty would "wreck our economy" is exactly on target. I enjoyed hearing Tony Blair say that it was unrealistic to think that the US would go along with Kyoto anytime soon.

American air and water is cleaner than it's been in a hundred years and gets cleaner every year. A treaty which might reduce global temperatures by less than a degree over the course of decades at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars is an anti-capitalist's dream and a rational worker's nightmare. As if the cost/benefit of the treaty weren't bad enough, it also excludes some of the world's worst polluters including China and India.

It's like implementing a malaria prevention program in Greenland. You might eliminate the one case of malaria that Greenland might see over the next century, and you'll be able to say you're spending money on the issue which seems to be the yardstick (rather than actual progress) used by international do-gooders, but you won't actually have done anything to fix the problem.

It is tragic that the G-8 summit was tarred by the London bombings, but if there's a silver lining to that dark cloud, it's that the summit accomplished as little as it did. "Accomplishments" such as those usually made at global summits usually involve little more than picking America's pocket. Thanks to George Bush for keeping our collective wallet closed as best he could.