Offer aid to increase national security

In the Newsday today, another pair of authors try to point out that all of this “tough talk” from the U.S. is not helping our actual national security.

<q>…what we really mean by “national security.” Do we choose the meaning it has had for 56 years − essentially domination and protection of the U.S. right to have its finger in every pie? Or do we mean the physical safety of the American people in their own country?</q>

What if we tried to change the basic feeling towards America in those regions by spending our money not on war, but on aid? After all, if we can give them $43 million for being anti-drug, can’t we give them that much for food?

<q>In Afghanistan nothing could shake the power of bin Laden or the Taliban more than a dramatically expanded − and non-politicized − offer to feed the people and help them rebuild their war-torn country.</q>