alt Hacker News>These programs were largely about ensuring that American propaganda can reach people in Iran or similar places.
This. The og point of USAID wasn't AID as per the name would misleadingly let you believe, but spreading pro-US anti-USSR propaganda, and only like 3% of that program was spent on actual AID, like food and medicine for the third world, but most of it went to funding media, news and journalists across LatAm, Asia, Africa dn EE, that would push domestic support in those regions for US policies and be critical of US adversaries.
US doesn't fund "freedom" of anything out of selflessness, it funds policies that are guaranteed to benefit it over its rivals, and use the word "freedom" to legitimize it. Once those benefits no longer materialize, the funding also goes away.
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>only like 3% of that program was spent on actual AID, like food and medicine for the third world, but most of it went to funding media, news and journalists across LatAm, Asia, Africa dn EE, that would push domestic support in those regions for US policies and be critical of US adversaries.
3%? There was a lot of waste with the program but surely, please give this at least 30 seconds of thought.
Makes the future interestingly unpredictable other than the inevitable fading of the US-isation of the rest of the world.
> only like 3% of that program was spent on actual AID, like food and medicine for the third world, but most of it went to funding media, news and journalists across LatAm, Asia, Africa dn EE
The budget for USAID in 2024 was $25.6 billion [0]. $ 9.5 billion were allocated to health programs and $ 1.1 billion to agriculture, education and infrastructure [1]. You can do the math.
[0] https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/usaid-budget-2024-...
[1] https://factually.co/fact-checks/health/usaid-2024-food-medi...