Foreign Aid

WHEN IS FOREIGN AID JUSTIFIED, WHEN IS IT NOT?

The government of the United States pursues a number of different foreign aid options.  Recently, the US has sent a number of F-16's and other military hardware to Egypt.  Egypt has clearly been taken over by radical elements of the Muslim Brotherhood & Morsi has announced to the world that he believes himself to be a dictator (aka Obama?).  How is this in this in the best interest of the US?  Giving radical Islamists greater access to advanced military hardware is not in our best interest.  The only group that benefits from this aid, are the American companies that manufacture F-16's and the other hardware.  But this is a very small group.  Although Egypt has been a US supporter in the past, we can hardly expect this to continue with the recent change in administrations and philosophy.  Egypt is obviously supporting Iran and becoming aggressive towards Israel.

Israel, a real ally in the region, despite recent actions by the Obama administration to write Israel off, clearly deserves our support.  By providing aid to Israel we support their standoff as the only democracy in the region, and their continued harassment by Islamist extremists. 

Military aid vs. humanitarian aid, is either justified?  Humanitarian aid, as we have given to Haiti, after the earthquake, or to Japan, after the accident, is something we as human beings feel obligated to do.  A true libertarian would say that they are over there and we are over here, there is no reason for us to get involved in someone elses business.  But as fellow human beings I suggest that humanitarian aid is always justified, regardless of the circumstance of the other countries government, whether dictator or democracy.  As long as the aid is actually received by those in need, it is the human thing to do.  But other types of aid, including military hardware, how can this be justified in any circumstance?  We can argue that in the case of Israel, we are helping a friend, since clearly being alone in the citizens of nations is undesirable, and providing support to nations that are clearly our friends is desirable.

In this changing world though, who are our friends?  Turkey has traditionally been an ally, a secular government in an Islamic country.  Recently though, turkey has become a country with an Islamic government and no longer an ally.  Clearly it is time to change our policy stance with Turkey as well as Egypt.  The Obama administration now provides aid to our non-friends and distress to our friends, why is this?  Either Obama is really an Islam apologist, or just has a confused foreign policy, possibly both.