Happier with no help?

No good deed goes unpunished.

Under the current administration more direct assistance to combat AIDS than ever before has been sent to African countries. AIDS in Africa is an equal opportunity disease for men and women thanks to a well entrenched culture of promiscuity. That means that the next generations are lucky if they make it out of the womb without already being infected.

That being the case, the United States tried a new drug designed to prevent the transmission of AIDS from infected mothers to their unborn children. By all accounts the drug works. The side effects, we are now learning, is that in some cases it may render the mother unable to be successfully treated for AIDS later.

Naturally the "hate America first" crowd is out for blood on this (count among these the Marxist-oriented African National Congress and the opportunistic Rev. Jesse Jackson). According to The Associated Press, the ANC Journal Online says the American doctor in charge of the program "was happy that the peoples of Africa should be used as guinea pigs , given a drug he knew very well should not be prescribed," the article said. "In other words, they entered into a conspiracy with a pharmaceutical company to tell lies to promote the sales of nevirapine in Africa, with absolutely no consideration of the health impact of those lies on the lives of millions of Africans."

That would make more sense if nevirapine was being sold in Africa instead of being given out in a humanitarian effort to fight AIDS. Making sense, however, is not required for any of the AIDS program critics. Jesse Jackson calls the U.S. effort a "crime against humanity."

In the United States, the Rev. Jesse Jackson called for a U.S. congressional investigation and demanded nevirapine no longer be distributed in Africa.

"This was not a thoughtful and reasonable decision, but a crime against humanity," Jackson said Thursday in Chicago. "Research standards and drug quality that are unacceptable in the U.S. and other Western countries must never be pushed onto Africa."

Would Mr. Jackson be happier if nothing was done? Or if nothing had been tried? Has Mr. Jackson ever actually tried to investigate matters (on anything) before he shoots off his mouth?

An internal review reportedly has cleared the director of the program of any blame in the matter, and many health experts are now worried that the drug will be pulled, thus condemning thousands, if not millions, of new Africans to shortened and disease-ridden lives.

We ask: Who are the real villains in this story?