Posted on 09/19/2016 7:00:04 AM PDT by VitacoreVision
Last week’s announcement of a record-breaking US aid package for Israel underscores how dangerously foolish and out-of-touch is our interventionist foreign policy. Over the next ten years, the US taxpayer will be forced to give Israel some $38 billion dollars in military aid. It is money we cannot afford going to a country that needs no assistance to maintain its status as the most powerful military in the Middle East.
All US foreign aid is immoral and counterproductive. As I have often said, it is money taken from poor people in the US and sent to rich people overseas. That is because US assistance money goes to foreign governments to hand out as they see fit. Often that assistance is stolen outright or it goes to the politically connected in the recipient country.
Just as bad is the fact that much of what we call “foreign aid” is actually welfare for the wealthy here at home. The aid package to Israel is a very good example. According to the agreement, this $38 billion will all go to US weapons manufacturers. So the real beneficiaries are not the American people, and not even Israeli citizens. The real beneficiaries are the US military-industrial complex. Perhaps the money won’t even leave Washington – it may simply go across town, from the Fed to the Beltway bomb-makers.
While even US government aid to desperately poor countries should be opposed on moral and practical grounds, it is even harder to understand US aid to relatively rich countries. At a nominal per capita GDP of over $35,000, Israel is richer than Japan, Italy, and South Korea. Not long ago Business Insider published a report by the Institute for the Study of War showing that the Israel is the most powerful military force in the Middle East. We know they have hundreds of nuclear weapons, a sophisticated air force, drones, and even nuclear weapons-equipped submarines.
So why is the US giving a rich and incredibly well-armed country a record amount of military aid? Part of it is that the US government believes it can coerce Israel to do Washington’s bidding in the Middle East. History shows that this is a foolish pipe dream. If anything, US aid subsidizes Israeli human rights abuses in Gaza and elsewhere.
Another reason is a very powerful lobby in Washington, AIPAC, that pressures Members of Congress to focus on Israel’s interests instead of US interests. Members of Congress should look at our economy, with effectively zero interest rates, an anemic non-recovery from the 2008 crash, historically low participation in the work force, and inflation eroding the value of the dollar and conclude that this might not be the best time to start handing out billions of dollars in foreign aid. Unfortunately most Members of Congress find it impossible to say no to special interest groups like AIPAC.
Here’s a better aid package for Israel: free trade, travel, friendly relations, and no entangling alliances. Israel should be free to pursue its national interests and we should be free to pursue ours. If individual Americans feel compelled to provide assistance to Israel or any other country or cause overseas they should be allowed. But the rest of us should not be forced to do so. Trade, not aid.
Because they are our allies in the fight for freedom you dimwit.
FURP
They are the front line of our defense...and one of our few TRUE friends.
America is broke , we shouldn’t be giving money to any country .
So we now know we are paying half of Japan’s defense costs, and who knows how much more to Korea and Germany, we are, apparently, building a wall on Mexico’s southern border, and Ron Paul is talking about giving $38B, over ten years, to the the only democracy in the middle east? Give me a break!
Bad time to ax that question Ron. Go back to your little dehydrator machine and make some lasagne and ice cream.
Ron Paul Small.
He’s 100% right about this.
--yeah, those rockets that come across and the assorted terror attacks are sure Israeli "human right abuses"--(sarc)
Donald Trump is running his campaign on a nationalist platform, and he's attracting support from a lot of people who ask simple questions like this.
Do we need to send money to friends to keep a friendship? While not a fan of Ron Paul I agree with part of his position. Remove Israel and attach it to any and all countries we do this for; Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Africa....Ron is right, I’m tired of US supplementing any countries for that matter. We are broke and continuing to spend money we do not have. When the debt is called is there a doubt in anyone’s mind these countries will slowly back away as if to pretend they never heard that call? Think they’ll come to the financial aid of the US?
Not for a second
Interesting read
Post 12
He’d rather even more billions go to “poor” and “weak” Iran.
Ron....Maybe you should look at what we send to the Palestinians...or just sent to Iran...or Turkey...
You cannot look solely at cost as the determining factor.
If you went out to purchase a car and you bought solely upon the price of the car, it may end up costing much more in the long run. Looking at other things such as durability, cost of replacement parts, fuel economy, and insurance costs may make the one that retails for a few thousand more, the cheaper car after all.
The same is true about investing in foreign partners. Making them more secure will pay dividends beyond what we spent.
To balance out all the billion$ we gave to Iran & the military aid we’re giving to other Mideast countries. I’ve also heard that there are some bad things happening next door in Syria.
Dullard Paul talks about the Israeli military, but never mentions WHY the Israelis have such a large and well maintained military.
It has to be.
They are surrounded by people who want to kill them!
The percentage of the Israeli budget that is defense related is huge.
Because their neighbors want to wipe them off the face of the earth and half the world doesn’t care.
Because they are surrounded by millions of Muslims who want to kill them for being Jews.
Any other questions, Ron?
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