The criticism must be frustrating for you… It’s very frustrating. American leadership internationally has made a critical difference in a whole series of initiatives. But we’re in a particular time; we’re doing some controversial things.
America applies just 0.1 percent of GDP to foreign aid. You know how much we’d be spending on foreign aid if we spent as much as 0.7 percent? $70 billion. We’re spending $10 billion now. We would be bigger than all the banks put together. It would distort the economies in the Third World to an extraordinary degree.
Some critics say the administration has done barely the minimum in Afghanistan. Since the last fall we have spent $690 million, $200 million of it for food aid, the second part for resettlement of refugees.
A year ago you worried about a winter famine in Afghanistan. What about this winter? In September there was a little panic we weren’t going to make it. But now 90 percent of the food needs of the country are in place, in warehouses–about 80 percent of it from the U.S.
