Why did Saudi Arabia get any aid in the first place? Why did one of the richest nations on earth get a place on the Washington dole? Why were we giving money to a country that cannot guarantee the safety of our citizens on its soil? Why were we helping them pick up the tab for all their funding of jihadist activities around the world? Why were we in effect paying them to spread the notion that we must be conquered and made over into an Islamic state?
A minuscule amount? Sure. But a penny would be too much.
From Reuters, with thanks to EPG:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers cheered as the House of Representatives voted on Thursday to strip financial assistance for Saudi Arabia from a foreign aid bill because of criticism that the country has not been sufficiently cooperative in the U.S. war on terror.The vote was a stinging defeat for the Bush Administration which had strongly opposed the measure saying it would "severely undermine" counterterrorism cooperation with Saudi Arabia and U.S. efforts for peace in the Middle East.
The House voted 217-191 to remove $25,000 in the $19.4 billion 2005 foreign aid bill earmarked for Saudi Arabia.
The funds were designated for military training but approval would have triggered millions of dollars in discounts on hardware and other military training, lawmakers said.
"I don't want my taxpayer dollars going to the Saudis and I don't want anyone else's to," said Nevada Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley.
I for one long ago ceased to feel guilty when I learned that the Dutch, Swedes, and Japanese outmatch us on foreign aid expenditure per capita. From what I can see, there are a handful of countries where our aid did some good (S. Korea and Taiwan) in the sense of helping foreign governments develop better livelihoods for their peoples; but these are outweighed by dozens of others where a corrupt ruling class enriched itself, impoverished its peoples, and engaged in troublemaking--on top of which, scarcely a bit of gratitude was shown anywhere. In the Islamic world, foreign aid has also provided "evidence" of nefarious American plots to colonize the region and fueled rabid hatred of the USA.
Indeed, the revolution of rising expectations that fueled so much revolutionary activity between the end of World War II and the 1970's got kicked off by the USA.
Saudi Arabia, the seller of so much oil, never needed foreign aid. And, if the Bushes and as-Sa'uds are such close friends, maybe the former can now tell the latter, "Look, your country, culture, and religion have a very large image problem in mine, and we are in no position to change it without your doing something yourselves."
It's high time that any economic assistance we send that doesn't have a lot of strings--nay, thick anchor cables--attached should be left to non-government donors. We can then tell the world that if they don't like the possibility of sub rosa Christian missionaries in their countries, they can expect no donors from America. Period. Something tells me that I can't expect a social democrat wannabe to be all that generous when he doesn't have other people's money to spend.
Good post Kepha1, I agree with you one hundred percent.
Canuck
Ditto Kepha1. The withholding of the minimal foreign aid to SA also removed a discount on that would have kicked in on military aid. It only makes sense that whilest they hold us over a barrel, literally, that we expect them to pay full price for a new Apahce helicopter.
I agree as well, that in no way do the Saudi's need any foriegn aid.
The other 19 billion is more of a concern however. NO Islamic country should get ANY foriegn aid. As long as they are militant, without a proper democratic government, do not allow complete freedom and equality of citizens of all cultures and religions, then not a penny should be given to them. Let "Allah" the rock god provide for them.
Saudi Arabia shouldn't be given a cent!Why on Earth should they be?It is Saudi Arabia who funds the madrassas, mosques of fundamentalist clerics,pays pensions to families of suicide bombers, probably still is funding Bin Laden.
Only reason they want America's help is to prop up
their rotten regime where women have NO rights and certainly NO vote, where millions of foreign workers are toiling in conditions more like
slavery.One of the reasons America is hated is because it is seen supporting this most despotic of countries which is anything but a DEMOCRACY.
I would be curious to know: which side predominated on this vote, Republicans or Democrats?