I see in various outlets and articles that USAID has been financing 85-90% of the Ukrainian media. Admittedly none of my sources for this claim are passionate admirers of US foreign policy and NATO: But I put to you that the following sentence, penned by Glenn Greenwald makes very good sense:
But the reason USAID was created in the first place is because it’s so much easier to access and manipulate other countries when there’s a pretense of humanitarianism to it rather than an explicit CIA or State Dept program.
Read it again. Is there any reason on earth why the US would not pretend to have philanthropical intentions in a country whose leadership they want to support in the face of popular opposition, or whose leadership they want to topple?
USAID is an acronym: USA International Development. It was created by then President Kennedy in 1961 with the specific aim of countering Soviet Influence. According to The Times of India, USAID has continued its foreign interference with unabashed energy since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, for instance in Cuba, Bolivia, Russia, Brazil, Peru.
According to the Iranian Press TV:
USAID, the agency responsible for implementing much of the US foreign aid program, is significantly impacted by Trump’s order. The directive effectively halts the agency’s current $42.8 billion budget allocated for global operations. (my highlight)
Why do I quote an Iranian outlet? Because I believe it is essential to hear all parties to an argument, be they friend or foe. I am not quoting the Brookings Institute, which also holds strong opinions on the matter, because those are the opinions most of us hear many times a day, year in and year out. In any case, the Iranian Press TV which I just discovered today, looks very interesting, indeed. I put to you that we know no more about Iran than what the US/EU wants us to know, which is not much, and not necessarily correct.
Anyway, here is a quote from a source most people in the US/EU consider “respectable”, France24:
USAID, an independent agency established by an act of Congress, manages a budget of $42.8 billion meant for humanitarian relief and development assistance around the world.”
True, some of the moneys disbursed by USAID have no doubt alleviated hunger. I am all for alleviating hunger, but not for artificially stirring up insurgencies in foreign countries.
From the Trump administration’s side, however, and for that matter from the US tax payers’ perspective, there is primarily the issue of accountability: Just how were the moneys used? To what bank accounts in whose names, were they disbursed. Where are the receipts regarding their use? The blank checks that have tended to characterise the generosity of successive US administrations are outright scandalous, and it’s a marvel that taxpayers have not long since demanded a stop to them.
We occasionally hear about the black hole in Ukraine, into which billions have disappeared. Most recently Zelensky himself said that Ukraine has only received 76 billion USD out of the 177 bn allegedly delivered by the US. Here I quote the KYIV Independent:
Ukraine has not received even half of the $177 billion the U.S. allocated to support Kyiv throughout the full-scale war, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with U.S. podcaster Lex Fridman released on Jan. 5
Zelensky implied that this development may have been linked to corruption or lobbying on the side of U.S. companies. Ukraine’s head of state said this in response to Fridman’s question about corruption concerns in Ukraine.
On second thought, I will quote Brookings, because their defence of USAID is so outrageously misleading as to be directly ludicrous. (My emphases; in bold: what is outright false; underlined: what is true.)
Abolishing the congressionally funded USAID would hurt U.S. interests in multiple ways that go beyond the core principle of U.S. policy to save lives.
USAID’s efforts to prevent conflict around the world, encourage democratic and pluralistic processes and protect human rights, reduce suffering from death and disease, encourage sustainable economic growth, and prevent environmental destruction reflect the essence of the United States. They help build an international environment that services U.S. interests and values
The very first sentence in Wkipedia‘s article on “Indoctrination”:
Indoctrination is the process of inculcating (teaching by repeated instruction) a person or people into an ideology, often avoiding critical analysis. (My highlight)
I put to you that we are all – here, there and everywhere – subject to massive indoctrination. Yes, here, too. And we all know that, but somehow we fail to take the fact into account when our sources tell us again and again and again about countries “we” don’t like. Some of what we are told is undoubtedly true, but much is false, deliberately so, at that.
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