Why Do These Countries Get Billions in Aid from the U.S.?

Here is the list of the top ten recipients of US foreign aid in 2023:

1. Ukraine ($16.4 billion)

2. Israel ($3.3 billion)

3. Ethiopia ($1.95 billion)

4. Jordan ($1.65 billion)

5. Egypt ($1.43 billion)

6. Afghanistan ($1.19 billion)

7. Somalia ($1.13 billion)

8. Yemen ($1.05 billion)

9. Congo ($987 million)

10. Syria ($896 million)

We discussed the first five earlier today. Now for the rest.

Afghanistan received $1.19 billion from the US in 2023. Why? The Taliban, sworn enemies of the West, rule Afghanistan. They have already inherited, thanks to the monumental screw-up of the Biden administration in its hasty withdrawal from the country, billions of dollars worth of American weapons. Why should the fanatical Taliban be receiving still more largesse from the Americans? If humanitarian aid is needed, again one has to ask, why aren’t the Gulf Arabs helping out their fellow Muslims? Or why haven’t the Americans demanded, in return for humanitarian aid, that the Taliban return all that American weaponry that was left behind?

Somalia, though not strictly Arab by ethnicity, is a member of the Arab League. Why is that godforsaken country, whose most famous export to the U.S. is the execrable Ilhan Omar, being given so much aid — more than $1 billion USD — by Washington? Supposedly, to help fight an Islamic insurgency, but if there really is a threat that the more extreme Muslims in the country might defeat the slightly less extreme Muslims, Saudi Arabia would almost certainly step in to supply the Somali government with weapons and lots of money. Let them.

Yemen receives more than $1 billion from the U.S. Why? The Houthis get money from Iran. And we are supplying aid to the national government, against whom the Houthis are waging a rebellion. But the national government is also propped up by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It is Saudi Arabia, especially, that has had its oil installations struck by the Houthis in the past and has the most to lose if the Iran-backed Houthis were to take over the rest of Yemen. Riyadh is quite able to supply that government with all the money, and weapons, it needs. No one can satisfactorily explain why we should be giving so much money to the Yemeni government to use in its fight against the Houthis, when the Saudis are the ones directly threatened by the Shi’a rebels.

Among the seven states that receive the most American aid after Ukraine, Israel, and Ethiopia, the Congo is the only non-Muslim state. The country’s government is a complete mess, but the land itself is very rich in natural resources. The Americans want to prop up the Congolese state with humanitarian aid, partly in order to keep the grasping Chinese from making inroads in such a valuable property, as they have in so many parts of Africa. The US government claims, demurely, that “we invest in the Congolese people by providing humanitarian aid, supporting comprehensive public health programs, promoting economic development, advancing democracy and respect for human rights, and delivering capacity-building tools.” Meaning: we’ll take care of things, as long as the Congolese keep China away from those natural resources. It’s worth the billion a year for us to keep the Congolese government allied to us. Just think of all that lithium, cobalt, tin, copper, gold, diamond, and coltan, waiting to be mined. Let’s make sure that we, and not the Chinese, are the ones to do it.

Finally, there is Syria, which in 2023 received nearly $900 million from Washington. And in the first six months of 2024, it received another $1 billion from the U.S. In fact, to date the United States has provided more than $14.1 billion in humanitarian assistance and $1.3 billion in stabilization assistance to help Syrians in need.

Again, why? If Syrians need “humanitarian assistance” let those Syrian Sunnis, who have fled Syria, or been displaced within Syria by Assad’s army, receive that aid from the Saudis and Emiratis, for whom such sums would scarcely be missed. And as for humanitarian aid that may be given to the Alawite-dominated government, Iran should be the one to support its military ally.

There is no reason for the United States, nor for any other Western government, to support Arab and Muslim states. They are not, and cannot be, our friends. They are, as Muslims, “the best of peoples.” And we, as non-Muslims, are “the most vile of created beings.” The money we give them will only strengthen their ability to harm our allies. There are dozens of non-Muslim countries that are far more worthy of our aid, all over sub-Saharan Africa and in parts of Central and South America. Let’s help them.