Who Gets Our Aid?

Mann again. He points out that US aid is not typically spent for development purposes but for strategic purposes. Hence, a good deal of it goes to a small number of countries in the Middle East:

“A third goes to one of the 20 riches countries in the world – Israel. A fifth goes to Egypt, which is effectively being paid not to attack Israel. Tiny Jordan, also paid not to attack Israel, rivals massive India and Russia as the next largest recipient.” Half of US aid “goes to prop up the small state of Israel.”

Significant military aid also goes to countries needed for the current set of wars – including Pakistan, Yemen, Indonesia, Qatar, and several of the former Soviet “stans.” Uzbekistan is an interesting case in point:

“President Karimov of Uzbekistan is as repressive as Saddam Hussein, and he is also smart. He delayed the US war on Afghanistan a month until he got promises of substantial assistance, help with teh IMF, and no human rights strings attached. Only then did he open up his air bases and his Friendship Bridge into Afghanistan. He got $160 million in aid in 2002.”

One of curious things about this list is the number of countries that also appear on the Pew Forum’s list of nations that place “Very High” and “High” restrictions on religion. In the “Very High” category are Egypt, Uzbekistan, Indonesia (another recipient of US military or economic aid), and Saudi Arabia. The “Highly” restrictive nations include US aid recipients Pakistan, Russia, India, Turkey, Kuwait, Yemen, Jordan, and America’s #1 aid recipient, Israel. Though the Pew Forum study found that Muslims are persecuted in 117 countries, most of the nations listed here as recipients of US aid are not restricting the religious freedom of Muslims. Many suppress Jews. Nearly all of them are restricting the freedom of Christians of one variety or another, sometimes of every variety.

Why don’t Christians object to this massive US support for regimes that persecute Christians?