US aid to feed almost 2,000,000 East Africans

There has been widespread domestic and international criticism (including by yours truly) of the United States because of its foreign policy. And while American foreign policy has always had some objectionable elements, criticism of it has reached unprecedented levels under the present administration.

But while I don't have numbers in front of me, I believe the US is the most generous donor of humanitarian emergency aid and one of the most generous donors of international development aid in the world.

I read yesterday that the US government pledged $92 million to food relief efforts in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa. That represents almost 30 percent of the World Food Program's appeal for the region where it estimates over 6 million East Africans will need food assistance. A single country filling almost 1/3 of the appeal.

And unlike in Iraq where our money is being used to clean up the mess



While the Iraq aggression will be rightly excoriated in the international press, will this pledge to fund the feeding of almost TWO MILLION PEOPLE merit even a blurb? Basic fairness dictates it should be at least briefly mentioned, but I'd be shocked if it were even a tiny blip on the radar.

The pledge is even more timely since it came the same week as UN Humanitarian Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland's complaint about how international appeals are consistently and grossly underfunded... especially if there are no western television crews in the affected areas.

In some cases, US aid comes with such onerous strings attached as to make it pointless or even counterproductive, as does aid from most donor countries. However, in many cases, the aid saves the lives of thousands or millions of real people.

Generous American aid does not absolve the US government of guilt for its active malfeasance or the US citizenry for going along with it (usually passively; sometimes actively, such as in Iraq). Nor should it be used as an excuse to sweep under the rug broad structural deficiences in the international system defended by the US and other western countries that perpetuate poverty in the first place. However, basic fairness dictates that stuff like this not be ignored as part of the equation