{"id":138495,"date":"2019-03-30T18:09:06","date_gmt":"2019-03-31T00:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=138495"},"modified":"2019-03-30T18:09:06","modified_gmt":"2019-03-31T00:09:06","slug":"lets-make-matters-worse-is-wonderful-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/30\/lets-make-matters-worse-is-wonderful-foreign-policy.html","title":{"rendered":"“Let’s make matters worse” is wonderful foreign policy!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Donald is concerned you’ll forget which country he’s the boss of.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While a lot of people still think of Mexico related to illegal immigration to the US, it’s actually the nations of Central America that have seen the biggest upsurge over the last few decades. That’s because life in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras is pretty damned awful — rampant poverty, crime, violence …<\/p>\n

I mean, folk tramping hundreds of miles north to the US aren’t just doing it on a lark, or because they admire our cable TV. These are desperate people, driven by desperate situations, fleeing north to seek asylum from the hell-holes their countries have come.<\/p>\n

So, of course, what is Trump’s response? How is he proposing to help the residents of these hemispheric neighbors, in countries that have been often ravaged by American diplomatic, commercial, and military actions over the past century-plus? How is he looking to provide the assistance to these nations so that people don’t feel the economic or even existential need to flee?<\/p>\n

The United States is cutting off aid to the Northern Triangle, otherwise known as the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, the State Department told CNN Saturday, one day after President Donald Trump said they had “set up” migrant caravans for entry into the United States.<\/p>\n

“We were paying them tremendous amounts of money. And we’re not paying them anymore. Because they haven’t done a thing for us. They set up these caravans,” Trump said Friday.<\/p>\n

[…] According to the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, comprised of retired diplomats, military leaders and members of Congress, aid programs in the three countries are working to address the “root causes of violence” in order to “promote opportunity and security for their citizens.” Officials would not say exactly how much money would be affected by the directive with some of it likely already spent.\u00a0Between last year and this year, about $1.3 billion was allocated to the region with the vast majority of it going to those three countries, according to a study from the Congressional Research Service.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Because apparently foreign aid is “paying” people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey set up these caravans,\u201d Trump said at an event in Canal Point, Florida, on Friday. \u201cIn many cases, they put their worst people in the caravan; they\u2019re not going to put their best in. They get rid of their problems. And they march up here, and then they\u2019re coming into their country; we’re not letting them in our country.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s not even questioning whether the aid being given is being used effectively. Trump’s simply convinced (or wants to convince us) that we “paid them” but have been, instead betrayed, and that the folk fleeing to the US aren’t actually, um, fleeing people, but instead are part of an organized effort by these countries to send “their problem” people to the US.<\/p>\n

Yeesh.<\/p>\n

Do you want to know more?<\/em><\/p>\n