"Send free my people.” The directive of Moses to Pharaoh remains an inspirational clarion call across the generations. Benjamin Franklin wanted the Israelites at the Sea of Reeds to be on the Great Seal of America, with the motto “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”
Rather, the Continental Congress chose the bald eagle holding 13 arrows in one talon and a 13-leafed olive branch in the other. The eagle faces the olive branch, showing preference for peace. Thirteen used in both talons indicates we should invest equally in peace as in security/war.
Within the total US budget, only 1% is spent on humanitarian aid. And this brings us to President Donald Trump’s desire to demolish the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
USAID was established by president John F. Kennedy out of the bipartisan Foreign Assistance Act, passed by large majorities in both houses of Congress in 1961 and further incorporated into law by the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998.
A USAID employee points out: “USAID was founded in the context of the Cold War when what we hold dear as Americans – freedom, democracy, free markets – was threatened by communism. It was envisioned to bring good to the world and show we care while also modeling the benefits of our way of life.
Trump and USAID
“Americans might not know what USAID is, but we are well known and appreciated for the immense positive impact we have on individuals and societies, often lifesaving, around the world. I wish the average American would understand how we and by extension the United States are appreciated in far corners of the globe because of that work.”
Others who do not hold our values are working to take our place. Sweeping into that void are China and Russia. This attack on USAID is also a manifestation of the dichotomy between the Republican belief in unilateral hard power and Democratic support also for multilateral soft power, as represented by the work of USAID.
Soft power is not soft when it comes to results and influence. The Alliance for Middle East Peace, referencing Israeli and Palestinian participants from its over 160 coalition NGO programs, says: “Alumni from all backgrounds display significantly higher empathy and lower levels of anger and hate toward the out-group compared to their non-alumni peers.” Those game-changing results need to be noticed and supported.
Echoing this assault by the US administration on civil society supported by USAID in Israel and around the world, the Knesset is advancing a bill that would tax foreign government support of Israeli NGOs at a heavy rate of 80%.
FROM DAY one of his second administration, Trump placed all foreign aid on a 90-day freeze. A few days later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced “a deliberate and judicious review of how we spend foreign assistance dollars overseas.”
While serious reviews are always good practice, that was never the intention of the president. On January 31, Trump posted, “CLOSE IT DOWN!” This was quickly followed by the USAID website going dark and many USAID workers losing access to their work email accounts.
The president calls his actions a “moral imperative.” There is nothing moral about his draconian methods. His policy is cruel and inhumane. Professionals who have served, often decades, in different posts around the world suddenly, along with their families, were told to uproot their lives – leaving houses, schools, and possessions behind.
Thousands of people around the globe will suffer when vital humanitarian programs are terminated. Let’s remember that the president did not receive a moral imperative mandate from the American people; his victory in the popular vote was the smallest percentage of the popular vote since Gore-Bush in 2000, not even breaking the 50% mark.
The president claims the rest of the world does not carry its fair share – he has an argument with military aid, but not humanitarian aid. We do not spend the most per capita. Norwegians ($1,161) spend five times as much as we do; Swedes, Germans, French, and Brits all spend more than Americans ($189) per capita.
The president and the secretary of state claim their elimination of USAID will save US taxpayers money. However, the undoing of USAID means an estimated $3.34 billion in economic losses to the US economy, with direct ramifications on job loss, particularly to farmers.
The assault on USAID – established to promote freedom and democracy – is part of a broader offensive on democracy. The administration’s motto is not “Make Democracy Great Again.” The president has said, in the most undemocratic of attitudes, “He who saves the country does not violate the law.”
The playwright Sam Shepard wrote, “Democracy’s a very fragile thing. You have to take care of democracy. As soon as you stop being responsible to it and allow it to turn into scare tactics, it’s no longer democracy, is it? It’s something else. It may be an inch away from totalitarianism.”
For democracy to work, all the citizens of a political union need to feel that there is a level playing field, so that even if a decision goes against them, they feel their opinion got a fair hearing.
Amos Oz succinctly reminds us in How to Cure a Fanatic of the choice we now face: “It is about the ancient struggle between fanaticism and pragmatism. Between fanaticism and pluralism. Between fanaticism and tolerance.”
The writer teaches conflict resolution at Bennington College.