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  Why Not Permanently Cancel Aid to Honduras?
by Jacob G. Hornberger
I’ve got good news and bad news about the coup in Honduras. The good news is that the U.S. government has suspended $16.5 million in military-assistance programs to Honduras and threatened that another $180 million in aid could be at risk. The bad news is that it’s only a temporary suspension and only a threat of a cutoff, not a permanent termination of foreign aid to Honduras and its military. That’s almost $200 million that the U.S. Empire is funneling into the coffers of Honduran officials, including those in the military. That is not a small amount of money. That large sum of money ends up in the pockets of thousands of Honduran politicians, bureaucrats, and military personnel. At the same time, it produces a deep sense of Honduran dependency on the U.S. Empire as well as a deep sense of loyalty and servitude to the Empire. Meanwhile here at home, most everyone knows that the U.S. Empire is bankrupting America with its out-of-control spending, on both domestic and foreign programs. With the feds continuing to spend considerably more money than they bring in with taxes, the national debt continues to soar. Massive currency debasement lies on the horizon. Yet, in the minds of many, the Empire continues to be a permanent given. No matter how bad things get at home, the Empire just continues doling out money to foreign militaries and foreign regimes with nary a concern about the adverse economic effects here at home. The Empire might suspend the payment of its military dole to Honduras and threaten a cut-off of other funds, but everyone knows that the largess will continue flowing as soon as Honduran officials do what Empire officials want. How much economic abuse will the American people permit themselves to be subjected to at the hands of Empire officials before they finally say, “Enough is enough”? The U.S. government has no more business taxing Americans to send foreign-aid loot to Honduras than to any other foreign regime. Don’t Americans have the right to decide what to do with their own money rather than having it forcibly taken from them by the IRS so that it can be sent to politicians, bureaucrats, and military personnel in the Honduran government? What if the Honduran government cannot afford a big and powerful military without U.S. Empire largess? Well, that’s just tough. It will mean that they will just have to do with a military they can afford, which might mean a few hundred soldiers. Of course, the primary beneficiary of that phenomenon would be the Honduran people, who would no longer be subjected to the brutality of their government’s military personnel, many of whom, by the way, have been trained in brutality and torture at the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas. Today, the American people are stuck in a very precarious economic quagmire. On the domestic side, they are dependent upon their socialistic welfare state, especially Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Thus, significant expenditure reduction is unlikely here. Further on the domestic side, they remain committed to the war on drugs, despite its manifest 35-year-old failure. Thus, significant expenditure reduction is unlikely here. Further on the domestic side, they continue to believe that massive federal spending will stimulate them to economic prosperity. Thus, significant expenditure reduction is unlikely here. Further on the domestic side, the national debt, both principal and interest, continues to soar. Thus, significant expenditure reduction is unlikely here. On the foreign side, Americans remain committed to the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Thus, significant expenditure reduction is unlikely here. Further on the foreign side, they remain devoted to the U.S. Empire’s network of worldwide military bases, its role as the world’s international policeman, and its program of interventionism. Thus, significant expenditure reduction is unlikely here. It would seem, however, that if there were ever an area of federal expenditures that the American people could agree should be eliminated, it is foreign aid. What better place to start than a permanent cancellation of the $200 million being sent annually to the Honduran government?
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