Pentagon Can Now Fund Foreign Militaries

January 30th, 2006 at 18:41 Björn Hallberg

Why not have someone else die in your stead or just set up a sepoy army? And without being subject to all those human rights standards. Apparently in the future, the US would have us fight each other instead of the real enemy.

WAPO - Congress has granted unusual authority for the Pentagon to spend as much as $200 million of its own budget to aid foreign militaries, a break with the traditional practice of channeling foreign military assistance through the State Department.

The move, included in a little-noticed provision of the 2006 National Defense Authorization Act passed last month, marks a legislative victory for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who pushed hard for the new powers to deal with emergency situations.

But it has drawn warnings from foreign policy specialists inside and outside the government, who say it could lead to growth of a separate military assistance effort not subject to the same constraints applied to foreign aid programs that are administered by the State Department. Such constraints are meant to ensure that aid recipients meet certain standards, including respect for human rights and protection of legitimate civilian authorities.

Though for the record, the US has offered this sort of aid to Israel for decades in dedicated programs. If indeed Israel can be considered a foreign power these days. But suffice it to say, if the US helped create and support the means for occupation of Palestine and the imbalance of power as it stands today, just imagine what their meddling will do to the world over the next couple of decades and what the cost in human life will be. So much for avoiding foreign entanglement. They can wave the flag but reading their own history they can’t.

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