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Foreign aid worth it

Tue., March 19, 2013

Charles Krauthammer (March 9) says the point of giving foreign aid is either to (A) support allies who share our values and our interests, or (B) extract from less-than-friendly regimes concessions that either bring their policies more in line with ours, or strengthen competing actors more favorably inclined toward American objectives.

When did we, as the wealthiest nation on Earth, lose our compassion to share for the sake of human survival and alleviating global hunger? Humanitarian aid, worldwide, would do more to gain allies than any military or economic assistance ever will. Politics be darned.

And for those of you who resent sharing a whole 1 percent of our federal budget on foreign aid, shame on you. What are your values?

Vaughn Blethen

Moses Lake

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