Foreign Aids

To many in the United States, foreign aid is a colossal waste of money. We’ve got a severe budget deficit here, infrastructure that is crumbling, students getting mediocre educations, cities and states unable to pay their bills, research dwindling… and we’re giving money away to countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt and a host of nations in Asia and Latin America. Too much of that money winds up in the corrupt hands of the local governmental officials who siphon off what they want before deploying some of the rest in accordance with American wishes, and using the balance to secure favors from local leaders to reinforce their political positions.

Even aid to staunch allies like Israel generates constant back-biting criticism and internal political interference (especially during elections) from senior officials from that tiny strategic Mediterranean nation. We provide aid to dictators and absolute monarchs, many with disastrous human rights track records or horrific restrictions on the rights of women, a fact which dilutes our overall message to the world that we abhor countries that are human rights abusers like North Korea.

We are probably the most hated country in the world, given our massive military (which dwarfs the expenditures of every other nation) and our proclivity to use it plus our willingness to conduct intrusive surveillance on just about anybody anywhere. Few nations in the world will follow our lead “because it’s right” anymore. We’re the big bully-hypocrite on the block. For those who walk with us, either our policies are in their self-interest, in furtherance of treaty obligations or we pay them one way or the other. During the Cold War, it was a case of two blocs – Soviet and American – who vied for power all over the planet.

Today, there are a few more players, some with a whole lot more money, like China, and others accelerating in economic success, as global warming opens access to untold stores of mineral and oil wealth, like Russia. The Saudis, terrified of Iran’s nuclear program and willingness to deploy its terrorist operatives (usually through Hezbollah), are ready to move billions to secure their regional strategic position.

Should the United States continue to pour money into ingrate-nations? Why in the world do we give a single penny to Pakistan, a country that decries our every move, blames us for instability, criticizes us for our drone program that actually takes out severe enemies of the Pakistani state, and seems to undercut our policies by providing safe havens for Taliban terrorists… in droves. It was Pakistan – through the allegedly “illegal” contributions of Dr. A. Q. Khan who was punished with a mild version of “house arrest” – that provided North Korea with enough information to make nukes and Iran with the ability to enrich weapons-grade plutonium and uranium. Think simply of American “aid” here as nothing more than paying blackmail to a country from spreading that “Islamic bomb” to more countries. If we don’t pay the bribe, they spread the nukes to our greatest threats. What would you do?

We provide military weapon systems to the Saudis, whose financial support gave rise to fundamentalist Taliban power in Afghanistan, as part of an overall effort to contain vicious Islamists who have attacked our country and continue to threaten to do it again. The same logic supports our aid to Iraq and our negotiations with one of the most corrupt regimes in the world (Afghanistan) to continue some level of contribution when our troops depart. We support too many Latin American countries in order to implement our anti-narcotics policies, since we are woefully unable to contain consumer demand back home.

China is the new champion of infrastructure projects in so many smaller, forgotten nations in Latin America and Africa. The photo above shows Chinese construction of the African Union Convention Center in Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia. And Russia is busy reassembling her once-powerful Soviet-era nation through strategic alliances, forced to some and to others with crass bribery. As riots slammed the administration of Ukraine’s President Viktor F. Yanukovich, as he backed off of a potential agreement with the European Union that would his nation more in line with the West, Yanukovich didn’t blink. Russia’s roubles carried the day. Ukraine Prime Minister Mykola Azarov spun the story to his people by telling them Russia saved his country from bankruptcy.

Simply, Russia was not about to let such a vital piece of the CIS puzzle move away from the long-term aspirations of reassembling all or most of the glorious Soviet empire back into one nation or at least one sphere of influence well within Russian control: “In a sharp rebuff to the West in the diplomatic wrangle over Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin said [December 17^th] that Russia would come to the rescue of its financially troubled neighbor, providing $15 billion in loans and a steep discount on natural gas prices.

“For the moment, however, Mr. Putin seemed to gain the upper hand over Europe and the United States in their contest for Ukraine, a former Soviet republic of 46 million that Russia sees as integral to its economic and security interests. It is by far the region’s most populous and influential country that has remained outside the European orbit.

“For Mr. Putin, the jousting over Ukraine is the latest of several foreign policy moves that have served to re-establish Russia as a counterweight to Western dominance of world affairs. This year, he defied Washington by granting temporary asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, and deflected an American military strike on his longtime ally, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, with a proposal to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons.” New York Times, December, 17^th.

Foreign aid, which Americans think of as “gifts” to the less fortunate (which occasionally actually happens!), needs to be viewed as either cheaper than a military alternative or simply as bribes to help keeps us and our global assets (including access to natural resources we need) safe. Got other ideas on how to accomplish these goals?

I’m Peter Dekom, just keepin’ it real.