I know, it seems like I rarely post about things other than politics (actually, it seems like I rarely post about much of anything lately).

I don't like to comment on politics on my Facebook page, because so many of my friends disagree with me. (I should say that I disagree with THEM since they're the ones posting - but I choose to not reveal my political leanings to them, since I don't feel the discussion is worth losing friends over.) Today one posted something about foreign aid, asking how it could be justified that we spend 50 billion on foreign aid when people are hungry and without health care in our own country.

I don't disagree with that, not totally. How CAN we justify that use of our tax dollars when we can't seem to find it in our hearts to provide for our own poor, our own unemployed, our own sick? As a citizen of the planet, however, I can see the rationale for providing humanitarian assistance to some countries where poverty is far deeper than it is here - where our own "poor" would probably be considered "wealthy".

So I had to look: Where do those foreign aid dollars go? I was not surprised to find out that the number one recipient of US foreign aid is Israel at about 3.1 billion last year. What does Israel need foreign aid for? Oh, I forgot. They have to buy weapons because they're surrounded by enemies. Who do they buy those weapons from? US arms manufacturers - read that as "Defense contractors". So 3.1 Billion to Israel is in effect a 3 Billion dollar subsidy to our arms industry? Looks like it to me.

Lots of countries are getting multi-millions from the United States, but the other biggies for foreign aid are Egypt (about 1.5 billion), Afghanistan (about 2.5 billion), Iraq (about 2 billion) and Pakistan (about 2.2 billion). Interestingly, two of those are the countries we just had wars with.

There were a few countries receiving aid from the United States that really surprised me, namely Russia (51.9 million) and China (7.3 million). I mean, what are we sending 60 million dollars to Russia and China for? To help China buy our debt? I'm sure there are political or economic reasons for it, but I don't know what they'd be.

What was interesting to me also was that some of my FB friends, who have made many other posts in support of Israel were the ones most vehemently against foreign aid. What I'd like to say was, well, maybe we should quit supporting the defense industry once removed via aid to Israel and maybe we shouldn't have gotten involved in the Middle East, destroying two countries and then finding ourselves obligated to use our tax dollars to rebuild them.

Take a look at this link if you're interested. It's an interactive map as to where the aid goes.

*****