The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Aiding Libya

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Regarding the death of Moammar Gaddafi, I don't have all that much to add to the various points I made when the rebels took Tripoli, but it's worth discussing the aid money that will be flowing to Libya. The new Libyan government's ambassador to Washington, Ali Aujali, talked about this today with Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy:

Aujali also outlined the help that Libya was seeking from the U.S. government and the American business community in the wake of Qaddafi's death. The NTC wants U.S. assistance in training its military, protecting its borders, and setting up the foundations of the new government and civil society. He invited American companies to participate in the reconstruction of Libya...

He specifically called for U.S. medical aid for injured Libyan fighters, a proposal that senators such as John McCain (R-AZ) have also supported. Medical assistance was part of the $11 million aid package that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced on her visit to Tripoli earlier this week.

This is probably a good time to remember that, relatively speaking, the United States is not that good at foreign aid. US aid programs generally perform below average in effectiveness and efficiency, according to a joint study by the Center for Global Development and the Brookings Institution noted in this space last year (in another post based on a Josh Rogin report -- I cite him pretty often, because he does really good work).

Like Secretary of State Clinton, President Sarkozy and Prime Minister Cameron pledged that aid would be forthcoming when they visited Tripoli last month. According to the CGD/Brookings study, France's aid programs are more effective than ours, and the UK's aid programs are more effective than France's. Given that, perhaps London ought to take the lead on administering NATO's aid to Libya; at the very least, US policymakers should take a cue from our allies in determining how our aid money is going to be spent.

View all comments (11) | Leave a comment

All American American| 10.21.11 @ 6:55AM

Wonder how much of this money is gonna get funneled to AQ?

Jack in Wi.| 10.21.11 @ 9:29AM

Borrow more money to fund foreign aid. The vast majority of foreign aid to goes to criminal kleptocrats. The American people are supposed to suffer with cuts in Social Security and Medicare, but Israel, Egypt, and Jordan are supposed to get their lavish subsidies forever. End all foreign aid now. It is unconstitutional and idiotic. Ron Paul is the only candidate who wants to end all foreign aid. He has a plan to cut one trillion from the budget in one year, with out rising taxes, to return this country to fiscal sanity. It is Ron Paul or ruin.

jan| 10.21.11 @ 2:18PM

We blocked $ 37 billion Libyan money, take out what it cost our military to run the past bombing campaign and return their money, end of story.

JimH| 10.21.11 @ 8:12AM

Libya is a rich nation and just needs to get the oil flowing again.

Too Many Tims| 10.21.11 @ 8:46AM

Colonel Gaddafi has learned the first lesson of not being seen...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zekiZYSVdeQ

Bob K.| 10.21.11 @ 9:18AM

This aid should perform above average "in effectiveness and efficiency." After all, Libya has Oil, Egypt and Somalia do not.

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Martin Owens| 10.21.11 @ 12:22PM

Sending aid to a nation that's floating on oil and gas?
And we wonder how we got so broke!

Trinacria| 10.21.11 @ 3:15PM

Yes, quite; by all means let's spend billions of US dollars to prop up the next totalitarian regime (and when they begin to brutalize the population - as they inevitably will - we can take the blame for that, too!).

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