United States should keep foreign-aid dollars, help our stricken nation

As I watched the TV at the growing catastrophe on the Gulf Coast, I was startled by one comment. A woman being interviewed said something about how the world responded to the tsunami in Indonesia and Thailand, but no one was even offering us any aid.

Maybe this is the year we should tell the world, "Hey, we have to look after our own first." If we took all of the foreign aid money, which is around $20 billion, then the U.S. government won't have to go even deeper in debt and our cities and towns will be rebuilt.

I know to some this might seem cold-hearted, but since the bulk of the money goes to countries that vote against the U.S. in the United Nations every chance they get, why not try this. What will they say - "Don't come running back next year with your millions of dollars"? I don't think so.

Now if I am wrong and some of our friends like the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Israel offer us help, I'm willing to rethink my idea. But I doubt it.

Speaking of the Netherlands, we should be flying their experts over to New Orleans, even if we have to kidnap them. Somehow that country has managed to survive since 1954 without a break in their dikes. When the dikes broke there in 1954, one-third of the country was flooded. They re-engineered the dikes and created a massive series of gates that hold back surges such as what we saw this week.

Meanwhile, let's pray for the souls who were lost, and dig deep to help the survivors.

Larry Waxman

Martinez