The recent uprisings in Africa made me think a little more about the policy behind American foreign aid. Foreign aid makes up a large part of the federal budget, and is both something that is frequently opposed and minimally understood. I find it very interesting that many people strongly oppose any foreign aid spending, yet gloss over the world news and have no idea what truly is going on in other nations.
The United States donates more foreign aid than any other nation in the world, yet it is not always for the most humanitarian reasons. It is clear that foreign aid often goes to corrupt regimes as a method of “buying” their cooperation with the United States, and aid is more likely to go to oil rich nations than poor nations with few natural resources. This quote by Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defense, shows this sense of cynicism, “Governments deal with the United States because it's in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets (taken from David Rieff’s article in the New Republic, Wikileaks and the Cyberwars to Come, "December 14, 2010).
While I certainly do not dismiss this point of view, I also believe that it is important to remember that, regardless of its intention, foreign aid does save lives. Foreign aid may not be implemented in the most efficient or fair manner, but it does help some of the people that it serves. I also believe that if the American people were more aware of the issues in the developing world they would be better able to lobby their representatives to make foreign aid policy more fairly implemented.
I though that this link was a particularly sad account about the consequences of one of the recent wars: in Libya
I also though that this article about the failure of foreign aid certainly gives the reader something to think about:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa065.html
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