Principled Foreign Aid

Addressing the topic that Matt wrote about here, via Betsy Newmark, of Betsy’s Page we find this Associated Press article in today’s Washington Times.

The U.S. will be revolutionizing its foreign aid program, moving from self interest towards principle. The new principled approach will reward countries for just governance.

President Bush proposed the Millennium Challenge Account initiative six months after the September 11 attacks, and it clearly addresses national security. It is consistent with the President’s forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East, announced in his Three Pillars speech, given at Whitehall Palace last November.

This is a timely idea. Read The Age of Sacred Terror, by Daniel Benjamin, the National Security Council's director for counterterrorism during the Clinton administration, and Steven Simon, its first senior director of counter-terrorism. When I read The Age Of Sacred Terror, I conclude that only by improving the lives of the populace of the Middle East, can we “drain the swamp” of the supporters of the evil doers.

As President Bush said at Whitehall Palace:

If the Middle East remains a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place of stagnation and anger and violence for export. And as we saw in the ruins of two towers, no distance on the map will protect our lives and way of life. If the greater Middle East joins the democratic revolution that has reached much of the world, the lives of millions in that region will be bettered, and a trend of conflict and fear will be ended at its source.

Arab scholars speak of a freedom deficit that has separated whole nations from the progress of our time. The essentials of social and material progress -- limited government, equal justice under law, religious and economic liberty, political participation, free press, and respect for the rights of women -- have been scarce across the region.

Many governments are realizing that theocracy and dictatorship do not lead to national greatness; they end in national ruin. They are finding, as others will find, that national progress and dignity are achieved when governments are just and people are free.

The new, more principled, approach to foreign aid signified by the Millennium Challenge Account initiative is a wise and welcomed change.

Solomon, at Solomonia, warns that even this positive change will find critics. Tyrants will oppose it, complaining that it interferes in internal affairs of their states. That is just more proof that it is the right thing today.

More information about the Millennium Challenge Account initiative, is available here.