Justin-
I couldn't agree with maciamo more.
We assume that the millions that the US sends out to handle "UN's problems" is significant. The countries in the EU contribute a significantly higher portion of their GNP to international causes. Although US foreign aid is significant, it is not the only aid flowing into third world countries and in the eyes of many of these people does not balance the "exploitation" of American investment. The United States has a huge trade imbalance. We could not possibly keep sending dollars out for natural resources and manufactured goods without the creation of dollars here. It is a complex economic relationship. Not only are we dependant on foreign goods and resources, but the world economy runs on American Dollars.
Meanwhile short sighted American policy, overt agression, the exportation of our cuture, and the overwhelming poverty of the third world forment hatred toward the US. No matter how much we think we are spending, we are percived as wasteful, uncaring, exploitive and arrogant. Enough so that young men are willing to blow themselves up to kill a few of us.
Solving American problems is more a matter of will than dollars. If the current Republican adminstration or the Democratic party had any interest solving domestic problems, the resources would become available. For example, we had no problem and very little debate finding the billions needed to fight terrorism and invade Afganistan and Iraq. However, we can find no more money to improve education, health care, day care, or fight the urban violence that claims more lives than 9/11 did, year after year. If we spent half of what we spend in Iraq on traffic safety, tens of thousands of lives can be saved. Arab terrorists are a high priority costing billions of dollars, but domestic street gangs (that kill dozens every week) are an acceptable nuisance. It is not that the money is not there, or that it is being spent on foreign countries, it is just that the will to spend it here is not there.
