Delaware Sen. Chris Koons, a Democrat, expressed support on Saturday for the US International Development Agency (USAID), which uses taxpayer dollars to fund programs such as Iraqi children’s puppet shows. did.
Coons expressed his views during the airing alongside CNN political commentator Michael Smerconish. “This is not just funding millions of kids shows, kids in countries like Iraq,” Coons said. “It helps to teach values, teach public health, prevents children from dysentery and illness, and pushes values such as collaboration, peace, cooperation in society where alternatives are ISIS. It’s helpful. [the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham]extremism, terrorism. ”
Coons also said that funding Sesame Street in Iraq was a “dollar penny” as it had an annual budget of $30 billion compared to the US Department of Defense’s $8500 billion annual budget. He spoke.
As “as ” [former President Bill Clinton’s aide Joseph] Joe Nye [Jr.] Often, “It’s not just soft power, it’s wise power,” Coons said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjuk-hliw0o
USAID co-produced Ahlan Simsim – Arabic “Welcome Sesame” – For children in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries along with Sesame Workshop. Ahlan Simsim was “designed to promote inclusion, mutual respect and understanding,” according to USAID, which is currently unavailable. Website.
12:54:35. (Wikimedia Commons/Public/by G. Edward Johnson – Original Work, CC 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=159365723)
Kuhn also paraphrased the soft power debate through international aid provided by General James Mattis, President Donald Trump’s first Secretary of Defense.
“[I]If you don’t fully fund the State Department, you will need to buy ammunition in the end. So I think it’s a cost-effective ratio. I hope that the more State Department’s diplomacy, the more we have to enter the military budget to address the obvious consequences of the US withdrawal from the international scene,” General Mattis said. Discussed with a March 2013 Senate military budget hearing.
Smerconish said: [sic] Show in Bogota [Colombia]. ”
Smerconish was referring to a White House Fact Sheet It wasted USAID funds for various programs overseas. Some of the funds went to LGBTQ and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs in countries that are as diverse as Guatemala and Ireland. (Related: “Incredible Delay and Rog Arrealization”: USAID whistleblowers believe “risqué waste” will ramp out across the federal government)
All of them are quoted by the White House and alluded to by Smerconish as an “example of kryptonite,” and are said to be far lower than former President George W. Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Ta. a Washington Post Analysis The White House claims are “very inaccurate” and say there is no context.
Coons said that the decline directed towards such spending was the challenge of governance in an era of short notice periods where “short tweets from Elon Musk or Donald Trump often beat two or three minute explanations.” He said it was part of it.
China and Russia have begun to exercise soft power around the world, “celebrating the death of USAID,” Koons added.
