Among the many spending cut ideas that the Republican House has come up with lately is a proposal to largely eliminate the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It is one of the most effective tools that we have in foreign policy, and the price ($1.65 billion) is a fraction of what we spend on many a less-effective mechanism. Some of you may be thinking, "If they're so important, why haven't you mentioned them before now?" We do tend to focus on the military aspects of the effort, but here are some posts that mention USAID. BLACKFIVE at the State Department, Part I (The Good) The Whole of Government Approach Teaching COIN in Afghanistan Off (and on) the Horn of Africa Global Counterinsurgency Roundtable with BG Ed Cardon Update on Iraq with BG Terry Wolff Mostly these posts mention them in passing, but anyone who's been out there doing population-centric COIN knows how valuable they are. They don't get a lot of glory, and the work they do isn't glamorous -- building water pumping stations in the Philippines; maybe wells or drip irrigation systems in Iraq. The honest truth is that they're often a real bargain, even given the frequent incidence of local corruption and so forth associated with building things in these places. That's not to engage the broader point about the need to cut the budget, which is a serious issue. Still, when you're thinking about just how you want it cut, you might keep USAID in mind as an example of something that works, and on the cheap.
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/6FH4vsEvBkI/in-praise-of-usaid.html
Posted
Jan 22 2011, 03:13 PM
by
BLACKFIVE