Half of the Foz do Iguacu waterfall is in Argentina and half
is in Brazil. The Brazilian half
is amazing. But, the wife and I
heard that the Argentinean side was even more spectacular. Getting to the Argentinean side fueled
the following explosive culturist rant!
Long story short, Americans must pay $160 to visit Argentina
for a day. Why? Reciprocity. We charge them for visas generally, so they charge us huge
sums for one day. They said it was
fair? Fair?!?! I’ll
tell you what fair is!
When nations get angry at the United States for not being
fair and generous, remember that the West – largely the US – invented the ideas
of being fair.
We have endless nuclear weapons and Argentina has zero. If we wanted to, we could easily tell
them, “Tell you what, you drop the visa fee, and send us 4 billion dollars a
month and we won’t nuke you! Is
that fair?”
If you think this policy suggestion is outlandish, think
again. Historically, nations have gone to war to steal land and get
slaves. Even now, Iran just wants
to nuke Israel to kill its people, with no eye to profit. China is slowly retaking Asia via
expanding its air and water borders because it can, not to spread
fairness.
So Argentina is using the “fairness” doctrine we created,
with resentment, against us. As
always, of course, it is much worse than it seems.
In 2012 Argentina got 178.9 million dollars in aid.[i] This is from the ‘global
community.’ But the ‘global
community’ always means the US is footing the majority of the bill. This even though, Pew Global Attitude
Survey shows Argentina’s population largely considers us, an “enemy.”[ii]
Of course, it is much worse than it seems. In 2012, the West Bank and Gaza got 1.8
billion dollars in US aid.[iii] This is the very same Gaza that is
hurling missiles at our ally Israel every chance it gets. Is that fair enough for you?
Of course, it is worse than it seems. Afghanistan housed the terrorists that
murderously attacked the US and the heart of the Western economy on September
11th, 2001. As a
result, we are trying to rebuild their nation and are supporting its
infrastructure. Is that fair
enough?
China is kicking our butts economically. And, though the amount is declining
sharply, we gave China 28.3 million dollars in foreign assistance in 2012.[iv] That may not sound like a lot. But, compare it with the amount of
financial assistance the world has given the West in the last 100 years:
exactly ZERO dollars.
Aiding our enemies and competitors is more than fair. It is insane. This insanity stems from a combination of multiculturalism
and globalism. The multiculturalism
means that we don’t judge any cultures – including our Islamic enemies. The
globalist part means we don’t take sides.
Saudi Arabia only aids the Palestinians, but we aid the Palestinians and
the Israelis because we’re ‘global citizens.’ We support everyone on the globe equally. Globalism means never taking sides.
The culturist foreign policy position is that we take care
of ourselves first! And, if we
must send money or military overseas, we aid our friends, not our enemies. That may not be fair, but it isn’t
insane either!
OK. I have a
proposal meant to clarify the parameters of the possible: Argentina drops the fees on us and we
make Argentineans pay huge fees to enter the US. We do this until all of the foreign aid we have ever given
them is paid back. And, if they
refuse? We’ll show them what
normal nations - with the imbalance of power our nukes provides – have normally
done.
That seems fair to me!
[i] List of
Countries by Foreign Aid Received, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_foreign_aid_received
[ii] The U.S.
Gives the Most Aid to Countries that Hate It the Most, Vocative, http://www.vocativ.com/usa/us-politics/irony-alert-u-s-gives-aid-countries-hate-us/
[iii] West Bank
and Gaza Strip, Global Humanitarian Assistance, http://www.globalhumanitarianassistance.org/countryprofile/palestineopt
[iv] Aiding and
Abetting: Why are the United States and Japan still giving Tens of Millions of
Dollars in Aid to China? Foreign Policy Magazine, July 12, 2013, http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/07/12/aiding-and-abetting/
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