ZGram - 4/16/2003 - "Embezzlement as Public Policy"

[irimland at zundelsite.org]

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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