USAID

By abdicating a tool of soft power projection, America is backing itself into a corner which may be hard to get out of

According to Annie Jacobsen’s book on the CIA, the President of the United States has three tools for managing international relations. These are Diplomacy through various channels including the Embassy, War and the third is called the hidden hand of the president or the CIA, which is primarily used to foment “revolutions” like we all saw in Bangladesh or to assassinate leaders who will not bend over.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Apart from Diplomacy, which can often fail, the menu looks like a bag of sticks.

But there are carrots too!

Almost all of those carrots come in the form of financial backing. Financial backing to the UN, the WTO, the WHO, the NATO, and the lowest on that list is USAID.

• You know how all of Europe was blind to atrocities being committed in Gaza - NATO

• You know how American tariffs are totally fine; but when others do it, it is protectionism - WTO

• You know how the war against the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq got approved - UN

The only weapon of mass destruction that they found was the profound ignorance of the American populace.

No questions were ever asked. Why?

You cannot expect a person to understand something when their salary depends on not understanding it.

Why USAID?

America is a war-loving country

• 1950 - 1953 - Korean War

• 1950 - 1954 - Puerto Rico

• 1953 - Iranian Coup d’etat

• 1955 - 1975 - Vietnam War

• 1958 - Lebanon Crisis

• 1958 - Taiwan Straights Crisis

• 1960 - 1965 - Congo Crisis

• 1961 - Bay of Pigs Cuba

It was in this environment that John F Kennedy walked into the presidency in January 1961. The Foreign Assistance Act was passed by Congress in September 1961 and through an executive order, the USAID was created.

This was a carrot to dangle at the poor countries since most of the trouble seemed to be in that area. If we cannot convince them, confuse them with money. You see when you give poor people a lot of money, it distracts them greatly. Here, a lot is relative.

USAID is one of the best tools of soft power projection that the US has. It not only allows them to offer their carrot but also makes it possible for them to impose their morals on others.

During the first Trump presidency, organisations in Africa that were supported by USAID were forbidden from performing abortions!

Whenever there is a vacuum someone fills it. No guesses for who will fill it - China.

You can take the White Boy out of Apartheid…

Elon Musk has been given a department that has all power and no responsibility. I think the objective is to create smoke and mirrors to further the cause of SpaceX.

But this beneficiary of Apartheid South Africa took a look at the government and the first thing that struck him was an agency that was providing aid to poor countries, most of them with black and brown people.

His department which is called DOGE of Department of Government Efficiency went after USAID.

If you have to look for inefficiency in the US government, the first place you should look would be the Department of Defense. With over 750 bases across 80 countries, the department blows up $1 trillion every year. Not to mention, they advocate for another half a trillion to be shipped overseas to further proxy wars in a variety of regions.

But there is one more thing that the Department of Defense does. They launch a lot of satellites! Given that NASA does not have a single space-faring vehicle, where do all the contracts go?

SpaceX!

So USAID with a budget of $40 billion is eliminated; which by the way is less than what Musk paid for the dumpster fire called X.

Chesterton’s Fence

G.K. Chesterton was an English writer who was also known as a Christian Apologist. He wrote this in a book to justify Christianity against reforms.

In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."

Source: Wikipedia

But it applies quite widely in the real world. Before dismantling something ask yourself why was it put there in the first place.

And Musk does not have a big-picture understanding. He claims to be first principles guy; I think he is a one-principle guy. He is in effect running DOGGI Department of God-awful Government Inefficiency.

Hard Power

Trump just froze funding for UNHCR. What goes next?

Once the carrots disappear, it becomes a lot more expensive to get people to do your bidding.

Once you abdicate the soft power, all you are left with is the hard power.

You can wage war. But war is a far more expensive option compared to the small amount of aid that was being distributed by the agency.

So there are only two scenarios that are likely to play out

Scenario 1

The US enters into more wars with countries that are disproportionately smaller. They try to decapitate countries that may be comparable in size using the CIA. In essence, they become the terrorists of the world. As an appropriate kickoff, Trump met the greatest terrorists in the world, Nut and Yahoo. He also proposed to adopt his genocide project in Gaza.

Scenario 2

Alternately, there is a saying in Hindi, ‘darzee jab tai jeeta hai, seeta hai’ (As long as a tailor lives, he stitches). Anyone can throw a real estate project Trump’s way and make him supremely happy. Looks like Nut and Yahoo gave him Gaza to redevelop.

This is the sum total of US foreign policy under Trump.