Another Angle on Katrina

Steven Leser, August 31, 2005
Elite TV

I'm guessing that when most Americans read the title of this article, they will be offended at the suggestion. We Americans pride ourselves on being humanitarians, willing to do whatever necessary to alleviate the suffering of our fellow man and resorting to war only when absolutely necessary. I know we like to think of ourselves that way, and I think those thoughts and feelings are genuine, but do we and our government respond according to those values with our wallets?

In 2005, the US will spend approximately 80 Billion dollars on the war in Iraq, bringing our total expenditures on that war to over 200 Billion. In contrast, the total requested 2005 budget for USAID, the US Agency responsible for doling out assistance to foreign countries for disaster relief, health and economic growth concerns, is only 3.6 Billion Dollars. FEMA, The Federal Emergency Management Agency, the government body tasked with responding to, planning for, recovering from and mitigating against disasters has a 2005 budget of only 7.3 Billion Dollars. [...] Read it all at
http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2005/Aug/EEN4315fea4a829f.html


© Virginia Metze