ZGram - 4/16/2003 - "Embezzlement as Public Policy"
irimland at zundelsite.org
irimland@zundelsite.org
Wed Apr 16 11:41:13 EDT 2003
ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny: Now more than ever!
April 16, 2003
Good Morning from the Zundelsite:
Anthony Gancarski is a regular columnist for CounterPunch, an
excellent web page. He can be reached at: ANTHONY.GANCARSKI@ATTBI.COM
Here he writes of "Embezzlement as Public Policy" - real food for
thought for all of us who just sent in our taxes:
[START]
April 11, 2003
Foreign Aid and AIPAC
Embezzlement as Public Policy
by ANTHONY GANCARSKI
One of the hidden costs of the New American Century is the
inevitable, periodic payoff to a friendly regime. Such payoffs
predate the current Administration, of course; Nixon had his "cops on
the beat", and the US bought all kinds of goodwill after WWII. As a
result of being long-standing practice, these undemocratic
appropriations of taxpayers' money to serve abstract foreign policy
objectives often go unexamined. That might be a trivial matter if the
costs were short-term, but the US commitment to foreign aid has not
abated with the passage of decades. As a result, Washington has
committed Americans to subsidizing the regimes of other countries,
without ever courting Americans' willful consent.
To give an example, Israel receives about a third of current US
foreign-aid. In the current budget crisis, foreign aid seems like it
would be one of the first things to be scuttled, but Washington
disagrees with such parochial logic. Addressing the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Annual Policy Conference on March
30, Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed the Washington
government's intention to increase subsidies to a tiny nation with a
token industrial base and one of the five most powerful militaries on
the planet. The transcript used here is from the State Department
website, leaving the reader to wonder whether or not "(Laughter)" and
"(Applause)" are intended as descriptions or as crowd directions:
"While we deal with Saddam Hussein, we must not forget the burdens
that the conflict with Iraq has placed on our Israeli friends. I am
very pleased that President Bush has included in his supplemental
budget request that just went to Congress $1 billion in Foreign
Military Financing funds to help Israel strengthen its military and
civil defenses. (Applause.) And that's just for starters. (Laughter.)
The President is also asking for $9 billion in loan guarantees.
(Applause.) These loan guarantees will help Israel deal with the
economic costs arising from the conflict, and will help Israel to
implement the critical economic and budgetary reforms it needs to get
its economy back on track. And I am hopeful that Congress, with your
encouragement -- (laughter) -- will act quickly on this request.
(Applause.)"
$10 billion, "for starters". As if billions of dollars were floating
around in the ether. At a recent Americans for Victory Over Terrorism
university "teach-in", Bill Bennett characteristically said that
America has been given special gifts and therefore has the obligation
to be "the world's policeman". But never do professional moralists
like Bennett ask why it is that US taxpayers should pay for the right
for our country to undertake such an unenviable task.
The dubious logic in which the US commitment to foreign aid is rooted
is rivaled in scope by the questionable economics of such programs.
Why does the US give billions of dollars to Egypt and Israel to
maintain a tenuous cessation of hostilities that isn't rooted in any
real resolution? Why does Washington loan money to countries, and
then absolve those countries of any obligation to repay their debt?
It seems silly to keep track of debt at all if the debts end up
written off. Such transactions aren't loans at all, so much as
rentals of measures of cooperation. The strategic importance of
Pakistan, for example, to the US government hasn't been lost on any
President since Nixon. True to form, Washington indicated that
importance on April 5 by writing off a billion dollars in Pakistani
debt to the US..
"This $1 billion in debt relief will add to the momentum of
Pakistan's economic recovery by allowing the government to focus more
of its energies and budget resources on critical social development
priorities, identified in the government's poverty reduction
strategy. I want to stress that the forgiveness of $1 billion in
bilateral debt is just one piece of multi-billion-dollar assistance
package the US government is providing to Pakistan." Those words from
Nancy Powell, US Ambassador to Pakistan, to reporters from the
Pakistani Dawn newspaper.
Agents of the Washington government cut deals with strongmen all over
the world, doling out billions of dollars from our bankrupt treasury
in the process. Essentially IOU's, these chits will be worked off by
our sons and daughters. These are perilous times, made more so by
foreign aid programs that are detrimental to what is now called
"homeland security". There should be a moratorium on the sort of
foreign aid provided to Pakistan and Israel until the US is again
financially solvent.
[END]
( Source: http://www.counterpunch.org/gancarski04112003.html )
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