Quote:
Originally posted by ADSigMel
"It's also not wrong that we expect it, or that countries receiving millions of our dollars do something in return for us. Or do you just feel guilty that you live in a great country? Does international aid make you feel better about yourself?"
I have no idea what you are getting at here. Assuming that the money we give to other countries is humanitarian aid, I do think it is wrong to expect U.N. votes in return for it. Individuals don't give aid to the needy in our own country with any expectation that we will get something in return from them, do we? I thought we did it because it was the right thing to do.
If the aid we give to other countries is not intended to be humanitarian in nature, but is sent for the express purpose of buying foreign policy votes, okay, that's one thing. It's bribery, and I don't like it, but if that's what it is, then that's what it should be called. However, the argument in the original post seemed to be that States to which we provide any foreign aid should vote with us, and I just find that morally reprehensible. Perhaps I am overly idealistic.
I do not feel guilty that I live in a great country. I feel BLESSED. And, yes, international aid does make me feel better about myself. I am an American, and everything that America does to help others makes me proud.
That being said, while I don't agree with "The people in the middle east love to bite the hands that feed them," I do think that America could stand to devote its valuable aid money to fixing internal problems of poverty rather than sending it off to other places, whether those other places are our allies or not. After all, charity begins at home.
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You're right. We should just give aid to the Taliban so that they can build their schools and after-school programs.
We have no right to consider what people do with the money or what they think of us at all.
Newsflash, the US is not in the business of charity.
-Rudey