The things that matter in life.

The things that matter in life.
The things that matter in life.

Friday, April 8, 2011

A quick rant regarding foreign aid and involvement

To those who complain how countries that get U.S. support often have connections with enemies:

Consider the matter from the other side.  NOT the country receiving the aid, but rather the enemy in question.  Why would a country have such dealings with a country with such ties to their enemy, the USA?  Oh, that's simple.  They see that they can use their influence with the middle country to their advantage.  The connection to the U.S. concerns them, but they balance that against what they gain or believe they might gain.  They might even see the connection to the U.S. as having some benefits.

Now, while I'm in principle all for coercing countries receiving our aid into being more cooperative, people who do kneejerk complaining about such situations need to consider that the U.S. might be in the same position--seeing that, on balance, we might gain at times from such arrangements.  They can continue to argue specific cases, but they need to shut up with their uneducated and unsophisticated blanket objection to such arrangements.