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Foreign Aid and the Middle East - What Do Our Dollars Buy?
By Allan Wall
October 21, 2003

The U.S. taxpayer, through his government, pumps billions of dollars annually into other countries via foreign aid. Certainly, some of this aid has done some good. Some could be justified, especially limited programs with close scrutiny. But it's quite likely that much, or possibly most, foreign aid is wasted and counter-productive.

Foreign aid may be well-intended, but often ends up in the hands of kleptocratic foreign politicians rather than accomplishing what it was designed for. Citizen accountability is sorely lacking - the American taxpayer is scarcely aware of what is being doled out in his name, and how.

Consider the contrast with private commerce and private charity. A businessman investing in a foreign country is there to make a profit, and will keep a close eye on whether or not his enterprise is efficient. Americans who make voluntary donations to private charity organizations can monitor funds to see how they are being used. They can cease donations and send their money to a different charity, if they feel the money is not being spent wisely. But in the case of government foreign aid there are political factors that sometimes make it hard to do the right thing.

From a humanitarian standpoint, much foreign aid is questionable, since many Third World countries are poorer now than before they started receiving it! This alone should cause one to ponder.

Does foreign aid really buy us friends? Many of the biggest recipients of U.S. aid have the most anti-US voting records in the U.N. , and anti-Americanism is often rampant in countries receiving aid from the U.S.

In some cases, foreign aid actually exacerbates anti-Americanism, by accentuating national differences in wealth and power - rubbing it in, so to speak. Proud nations are reduced to beggars, asking alms from the United States, so they compensate by being anti-American. The relation sometimes resembles that between a resentful but dependent adolescent and his father.

How about the Middle East? Billions of dollars in aid are being dispensed there. What does it accomplish?

(Let's leave aside the Iraqi question for the moment. Iraq is now a U.S. territory, making it a different case entirely. There are plenty of other cases to consider.)

Israel is the #1 recipient of U.S. aid. But it doesn't really need the money, which totals less than 3% of its GDP. In fact, U.S. aid probably discourages needed economic reforms which could make the Israeli economy more productive. Aid also makes Israel unnecessarily dependent on the United States, making the Jewish state vulnerable to U.S. pressure to make unwise concessions to its enemies. You can't receive aid, in other words, with no strings attached. (See "Israel Doesn't Need to Be A Banana Republic", for some good recommendations along these lines).

Egypt is the second-largest recipient of foreign aid, and is considered a close ally. However, Egypt is still an authoritarian state and its official media is a source of anti-American and anti-Jewish rhetoric. The nation's Christian minority is persecuted and Islamic radicals are always on the verge of causing major damage. Plus, Egypt has been cooperating with North Korea in the development of ballistic missiles. Is American aid to Egypt a good investment?

Even pre-9/11 Taliban Afghanistan was raking in U.S. aid dollars! In July of 2001, the government reported that in that fiscal year, Afghanistan had already received $117,869,525 millions of dollars in aid for food, education and other benefits.

Did that inspire Mullah Omar to turn Osama over to us? Of course not. Like the Beatles sang, "Money Can't Buy Me Love!". Now the U.S. is spending big bucks to beef up Afghanistan's borders - how about our own borders?

Since the Oslo Accords, the U.S. has paid millions to the Palestinian Authority. What has that purchased? Certainly not peace. To show its gratitude, the Palestinian Authority named a city square in Jenin after a suicide bomber who killed 4 American soldiers in Iraq.

A year ago in October of 2002, USAID official Laurence Foley was assassinated in Amman, and Yasser Arafat called his killers "noble men". (Was Arafat against the fact that USAID had supplied clean drinking water to Jordanians, or was it just sheer anti-Americanism which caused him to say that?) Some USAID funds disbursed to the Palestinian Authority, by the way, were used to renovate a high school named after Dalal Mughrabi, a female terrorist who killed 37, including 1 American. http://www.connectionmagazine.org/2002_11/ts_bauer_unmoney.htm And then there is the latest atrocity - American embassy officials dispensing scholarships to Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.

Why are we sending money to these guys?

Other countries considered U.S. allies are Jordan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Yet Jordan appears to be a great source of anti-American activity in Iraq. Elements of Pakistan's government apparently aided our enemies in Afghanistan even after 9/11. And Saudi Arabia, the country we saved in the First Gulf War, is the home of Osama bin Laden and most of the 9/11 hijackers.

Isn't it about time to sit back and analyze our entire Middle East policy?

And here's something interesting to consider. One Middle Eastern country which reportedly does have a significant amount of pro-Americanism is Iran. Not only does Iran not receive U.S. aid, but its regime is an enemy of America. Quite a contrast with Egypt, where the exact opposite is true. There may be a lesson there....

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Allan Wall is an American citizen who lives and works (legally) in Mexico. His website is www.allanwall.com and he can be contacted at allan39@prodigy.net.mx