RUSH: Peter, Port Washington, New York. Hey, Peter, I’m glad you waited. Great to have you on the show.
CALLER: Nice to talk to you, Rush. Now that it’s apparent more than ever that we need a global response in the War on Terror, I’m wondering why we don’t use our international aid as leverage, meaning no country that gets one penny of international aid should not be involved actively in the War on Terror.
RUSH: You know, for the longest time — that’s a message close to my heart. For the longest time I have had a theory about foreign aid. It’s not all that much money in the big scheme of things. And when you compare the amount of money we spend on foreign aid in the budget compared to the whole budget, it’s a minuscule amount, taken by itself. Depending on other things, it can be seen as a lot of money. But I’ve always thought, why in the world are we giving money to people that don’t support us?
Why in the world do we give money to people that end up ripping us and criticizing us? Why do we end up giving foreign aid to certain countries that actively work against us? I have always thought that foreign aid should be merit based. Okay, you want foreign aid from the United States, we’re gonna have to list, and we’re gonna have the good list and we’re gonna have the excrement list. And if you get on our excrement list, you’re on it for a while. It’s gonna take you years to get off of it.
If we’re gonna give you X-number of dollars every year, you had better love us, you had better respect us, you had better support us, you’d better say good things about us, and you had better fall in when it comes to policy, defending and protecting freedom in the United States and around the world. And if you don’t, you get up on the excrement list, and you don’t get any more money, and you’re on that list for years. It’s gonna take you two, three years of proper behavior before you get back on the good list and can once again receive American foreign aid.
So your question, why don’t we use it for leverage, we never have. We have never used it for leverage. Well, that’s probably not correct to say, in a blanket way. But clearly foreign aid has political connotations and reasons behind it, not just securing support for the United States. So much foreign aid to certain countries ends up in the back pockets of the dictators that lead the countries that we’re assisting. It’s like — (laughing) I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh. ISIS — (laughing) — look, they’re not funny. I’m sorry. When the UN is the victim, I can’t help but laugh.
You know, the UN has this World Food Program, and they had these foodstuffs and these boxes of relief aid, food and water. They ship it all over the country to the starving and the thirsty and the needy. Well, ISIS stole a bunch of it, and they stuck their own icons and logos on boxes in Syria, and they’ve been distributing free food. It’s the UN’s, and the UN is ticked. The World Food Program is livid that ISIS would steal their food and that ISIS would then distribute it to the poor and get the credit for being the good guys. So the UN’s getting a little taste of its own medicine in terms of how we in America sometimes feel when nations we extend lots of money to, donate money, give money in foreign aid, end up not acting in an allied away or status.
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RUSH: Here is Lawrence, Pembroke Pines, Florida. Great you waited, sir. Thank you for your patience, and hello.
CALLER: Yes. I have a question and an answer regarding this ISIS crisis and I’d like your take on it.
RUSH: Right. Okay.
CALLER: Now, as we know, our so-called leader has already said that he would not put US troops on the ground to defeat them, right? And since this crisis involves so many different countries I think that a great solution to this would be an international coalition of ground troops. Would you agree?
RUSH: I don’t know that there is one. Who are you thinking about?
CALLER: Right. There isn’t one, because nobody has stepped forward to do it. Now, my question is this. Rush, why can’t the organization known as the, quote, United Nations, step in, done anything, said anything about this?
RUSH: Oh, come on, are you serious out there, Lawrence? You know the answer. They’re a bunch of wusses.
CALLER: Ah, yeah, well, what the hell are they there for? If ever there was a time when we needed them, it’s right now.
RUSH: The purpose of the United Nations is to separate the United States from its money.
CALLER: That’s about it. You’re right. So what can we do? Somebody’s gotta step forward and form an international coalition of ground troops.
RUSH: This is not something I see Obama doing. Remember now, we are in legacy mode for Obama, legacy building mode. I think you study Obama’s foreign policy and it boils down to what right do we have to tell ISIS they can’t do anything? I mean, we went all over the world killing people. We went all over the world conquering territory. We built nuclear weapons, and nobody told us we couldn’t. Who are we to tell them they can’t? It’s Syria’s problem. It’s Iraq’s problem. It’s Bush’s problem. It isn’t mine.