Nov. 03, 2005

War of the words: foreign disaster aid

By JAKOB KANE LOUKAS
jkl001@marietta.edu

The United States is the most economically advanced and powerful nation in the world.  Contrary to popular belief, this doesn’t mean we get to push the other nations around.  I learned in third grade that just because I was the largest kid on the playground, it didn’t mean that I could pick on my diminutive classmates.  Our nation seems to have lost this lesson somewhere in the political machine.

The U.S. government greatly underestimated the damage Katrina would cause.  If the U.S. had properly prepared for the hurricane season, we would have had the resources to minimize the impact on the Gulf Coast, but poor planning made the damage much greater than it should have been.  I seem to remember that there is an organization like the army that is meant to guard the nation; I wonder where they were?

Many nations barely have the resources to keep their states stable and cannot even begin to worry about the luxuries we have in the United States.  When disaster strikes these nations, all the planning that we lacked this year, couldn’t help them.  The earthquake in Pakistan left the military so crippled that the only thing they could do was spray dead bodies to prevent the spread of disease.  They simply did not have the resources to collect, identify, and return the bodies to their families.  These people should not be condemned just because they happened to have been born outside the U.S.

If most of our resources, including the National Guard, were not in Iraq, the U.S. would be prepared for most natural disasters, while most other nations are not.  If we have the right to impose regime change on a nation just because of our power, we also have the obligation to use that power to help nations in need.

By KATIE SCHWENDEMAN
kjs001@marietta.edu
One word has been repeated numerous times in conversation, print, broadcast, and other venues of communication: disaster. It cannot be argued that America has not recently experienced its fair share of disasters. Since hurricane Katrina, Wilma, Fran, Stan and Bojangles... just about every hurricane seems to be hitting our coastlines this fall.

Outside of the President, and other people and groups that have been blamed for America's misfortune, little has been mentioned about other countries and how they could, or should, help.
Why, may I ask, do we feel obligated to help out other countries in their times of need when they do not help us out in our times of need? Should we stop helping out other countries and become isolationist? I wouldn't say we should go that far, but I do feel that we should at least lessen our help a little, to let other countries know that we aren't always going to be at their beck and call if we don't get a little something in return.

I heard this saying somewhere, and liked it: “Trade, not aid.” I'm not so heartless as to say that I don't think we should help other countries, but there is a fine line between giving so much that your generosity is being taken advantage of, and giving adequately in order to help certain situations. It angers me when anti-American countries expect America to hand them donations, while plotting against us at the same time. Some countries that are even considered our allies secretly scheme against us while accepting aid.

Sometimes you have to hold back in order to teach a lesson; sometimes you have to be less available for others to recognize how much of an asset you really are. That is my opinion.
It is a fact that your tax dollars go to foreign aid. This may make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, and it should, to some extent, but what happens when this money, through embezzlement, gets into the hands of disastrous leaders? Don't be naive. This does happen, and probably more often than not. Call it ludicrous, but could your money actually be purchasing the very things that are used against us?

You may give your government your tax dollars and not give it a second thought, but think about it: where does it go?

Obviously, we cannot completely control how the government uses our tax dollars; likewise, our government cannot control where our goodwill donations are being used in other countries because of their governments. Therefore, we cannot control how others use our charity, BUT we can control to whom we choose to give it. America should be more selective in where we give out foreign aid.