Jewish World Review Jan. 11, 2005 / 1 Shevat, 5765

Can't buy me love

By Tucker Carlson

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | For a certain sort of intellectual in this country, the lesson of September 11th was clear: America was attacked by Muslim extremists, so therefore America must woo, cajole and   —   above all   —   send more money to the Muslim world. If only we're nice enough, maybe they won't do it again. That was the theory.

Sounds good. The only problem is, there has never been any evidence that it's true. But that hasn't stopped people from believing it. Just hours after tsunamis devastated south Asia last month, critics attacked the U.S. government for offering a stingy aid package to victims. It's not just a matter of compassion, they said, but of public relations. Many of the hardest hit areas are heavily Muslim. If we don't send huge amounts of money, they won't like us. The implication was, some of them could become terrorists.

And so we are sending huge amounts of money.

And good for us.

But let's not expect that money to win us affection. The United States helped rebuild Western Europe after the second world war. Do the French love us for it? We're currently pouring billions into Iraq, much of it for humanitarian purposes. How grateful do the Iraqis seem?

The truth is, all the aid America is now pouring into South Asia won't buy us many friends. If anything, it may cause more resentment. And that's fine. Because in the end we don't give so that others will feel good about us. We give so that we can feel good about ourselves.