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| Axis of Evil |
| Two other dictatorships oppose attack on Iraq. Surprise. |
| 2002-09-30 |
| Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad expressed Monday their continuous opposition to an attack against Iraq and called on the UN Security Council "to force Israel to implement (international) resolutions and withdraw from the land it has occupied" in the West Bank since mid-June after a wave of suicide bombings. The two leaders "stressed the need to strengthen the international current opposed to a strike on Iraq so that Just more of the same, but they have to keep saying it to try and keep the pot stirred... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #3 I've been to Egypt, and let me tell you, the people there have a very complex attitude towards the U.S. Here's why: The U.S. gives Egypt $2.2 BILLION annually in foreign aid (Israel gets $2.8 billion, the Palestinians $500 million!) In Egypt about 40% U.S. dollars go to "economic" aid, the rest to their military. The trouble is that most of the nonmilitary aid is for infrastructure improvements that Mubarek takes credit for. So, the average Egyptian really can't see the money we provide. We need to change that. They do know our money helps his military and that, they see, props up his repressive regime(though it is NOTHING like Saddam's) That aid is there for one reason: to keep Egypt from attacking Israel. Frankly, the problem with ALL our foreign aid is that we are way, way too low profile about what it's used for in the recipient countries. The people basically don't know they're getting money from us, and since we don't advertise it, they either think we're propping up evil governments (which is sometimes true) or we don't help them at all...this may help explain another thing... In 1999, a Heritage Foundation study found that "73 percent of US foreign aid recipients voted against the United States a majority of the time on average over the past five sessions of the UN General Assembly." They get our money and then they don't support us. Think about what happened at the UN's Sustainability conference last month...our reps had to scream and shout again and again that we are by FAR the world's most generous nation when it comes to purely humanitarian aid. We need to go DIRECTLY to the people who live in these countries. ALL food aid should be clearly marked that it came from us. All water projects should have "Gift of the U.S." stamped everywhere. Every tractor, every piece of equipment should have the same label...that should be required of all our aid. Here's the Heritage Foundation story: voting record of U.S. aid recipients |
| Posted by: R. McLeod 2002-10-01 01:30:22 |
| #2 And to think that we live in a time where George Bush single handedly destroyed, or should I say rendered insignificant, the U Freaking N. A hero in my book, its laughable that Syria and Egypt want the un to enforce its resolutions against Israel when it can't even enforce the ones (16, remember) it passed against Iraq! The Muslim countries want to deny their pre-mohoMad culture, when they would do well to deny that culture that befell them in 600AD, and the giant steps backward ot has taken them. |
| Posted by: myron 2002-09-30 22:10:56 |
| #1 Time to re-evaluate the benefits our foreign aid gets us on a nation-by-nation basis....seems to me that we pay Hosni to allow weapons to be smuggled to Gaza, criticize us as much as his "street" needs and defy us on mideast initiatives, no? |
| Posted by: Fgaines 2002-09-30 17:31:32 |