Billions in aid, Arabs still hate USA

Washington DC - While America’s standing in the Middle East couldn’t get much lower, you wouldn’t know it looking at the U.S. foreign aid budget. Of proposed U.S. assistance for 2012, almost two-thirds is earmarked for Muslim nations and one-third goes to Arab countries. Yet, despite those billions in aid, opinion polls show most Arab citizens still have an unfavorable view of America and most Muslim nations routinely vote against U.S. interests in the United Nations. “If we are giving money to countries consistently voting against our interest, we ought to cut them off,” says Congressman Steve Chabot (R-OH) who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Years ago, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton proposed cutting off all aid to the 30 nations who consistently voted against the U.S. in the UN. Before him, President Reagan’s U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick proposed cutting off $1 million in aid for each vote an aid recipient cast against the U.S. in the U.N. In both cases, Bolton says the State Department overruled them.  More