I've loved U2 from the first second I heard "Boy". Bono can be more than a little pompous sometimes, but his heart is in the right place. Tonight he was on the O'Reilly Factor live from the Republican Convention. Bono wants America to give more to fight AIDS in Africa. According to the stats he quoted, the Marshall Plan cost one percent of our GDP, while today we spend .15% of our GDP to fight AIDS in Africa.

Bono's heart is in the right place. He refuses to trash either party or candidate because saving lives in Africa is more important to him than looking cool in front of other musicians. I think he's worthy of tremendous admiration.

However, Bono's thesis tonight was that by going full force to fight AIDS in Africa, America will regain the love of the world. I don't know if Bono really believes that or if that's just his sales job. In any case, I completely disagree with him. The idea that we need to regain the love of the world smacks of the whole "why do they hate us?" reaction to 9/11.

The world doesn't hate America because we don't give enough money (we give more in total than anyone else) to poor countries. They hate us because we're successful. They hate us because we're free. They hate us because we're powerful.

We've liberated millions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Afghani girls can go to school. Iraqs don't have to fear Saddam's torture chambers. When our President pointed out this fact during the Olympics, what did the world do? They complained. How dare we?

This isn't to say that we shouldn't do more in Africa, particularly if organizations like Bono's are only willing to work with regimes that aren't lining their own pockets with our largess. But what we do in Africa (and elsewhere) should be done because it's the right thing to do, not because we feel like we need to win a popularity contest.