[Oldeconomybuyer]

...and two and a half times as much as they spent on food for needy nations...

That alerted my BS METER when I read it - see below, which is just one source of US aid to needy nations...

Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development

Official Development Assistance (ODA) for 1999 and 2000
Click on column headings that are links to change sort order
		ODA in U.S. Dollars (Millions)			ODA as Percentage of GNP
	Country	1999	2000	2001	1999	2000	2001
1.	Denmark	1,733	1,664	1,599	1.01	1.06	1.01
2.	Norway	1,370	1,264	1,346	0.91	0.8	0.83
3.	Netherlands	3,134	3,075	3,155	0.79	0.82	0.82
4.	Luxembourg	119	116	142	0.66	0.7	0.8
5.	Sweden	1,630	1,813	1,576	0.7	0.81	0.76
6.	Belgium	760	812	866	0.3	0.36	0.37
7.	Switzerland	969	888	908	0.35	0.34	0.34
8.	France	5,637	4,221	4,293	0.39	0.33	0.34
9.	Ireland	245	239	285	0.31	0.3	0.33
10.	Finland	416	371	389	0.33	0.31	0.33
11.	United Kingdom	3,401	4,458	4,659	0.23	0.31	0.32
12.	Spain	1,363	1,321	1,748	0.23	0.24	0.3
13.	Germany	5,515	5,034	4,879	0.26	0.27	0.27
14.	Portugal	276	261	267	0.26	0.26	0.25
15.	New Zealand	134	116	111	0.27	0.26	0.25
16.	Austria	527	461	457	0.26	0.25	0.25
17.	Australia	982	995	852	0.26	0.27	0.25
18.	Japan	15,323	13,062	9,678	0.35	0.27	0.23
19.	Canada	1,699	1,722	1,572	0.28	0.25	0.23
20.	Greece	194	216	194	0.15	0.19	0.19
21.	Italy	1,806	1,368	1,493	0.15	0.13	0.14
22.	United States	9,145	9,581	10,884	0.1	0.1	0.11

[TroutStalker]

Do those figures include all aid such as medical, military, economic development, debt relief, etc. not just food?

[exit82]

Good catch. The other trigger for the BS Meter was when he said 98 million to one billion birds die crashing into windows. If that were true, we wouldn't be able to walk on the sidewalks. That's a lot of birds.