Military Question

I am an Army wife, and this is not a military question. Do you remember what happened on 9/11? That is why my husband is currently in Iraq.

Try placing blame with the politicians and celebrities. How much money has Oprah sent to Africa?

And, don't get me started about gov't assistance. I have no doubt there are people who need it. However, too many people have learned to 'work the system', and now it is broken!

America is trying Amercanize the entire world. You know the "New World Order". It's biblical and will happen eventually, we are getting closer to it everyday.
In all reality there are so many agencies available to help ourselves here but the red tape and paperwork is so crazy most people don't try to apply for the help.... but there really isnt any reason for an American to go hungry unless they dont follow through with the freebies that are offered us. Im pretty certain that every county has a food surplus and food give aways that you can stand in line for several times during the month. I have them here in my extremely poor county and my tenants are in that line every week and bring me things that they dont want to eat.
Churches always give food aways to people that are needy.
Those that dont qualify at our county agenciest is because they've done something irresponsible with money they've have had in the past, those lessons are hard to swallow. If you have a lot of assets, like cars and boats and such, you generally dont qualify for help until you sell your "stuff". Many of my tenants do not own cars, have never owned a cell phone, do not have computers, dont have cable television.... they are truly struggling to make ends meet and have no frills either. They do have food and roofs over their heads tho and most of them are quite happy with that knowing they'd be homeless otherwise.
There are always jobs, even if it means working the drive thru at taco bell. some people cant get jobs due to criminal history or bad employment history. Some people wont work two jobs to make ends meet even tho they physically could.
America is a great country, however I get pretty pissed off too. I cant imagine living anywhere else tho. Freedom is something none of the other countries can or will provide.
America is also trying to get families to help each other rather than the govt helping. In the old days families all lived together, these days most of us cant imagine having aging family members living with us and taking care of them. There is a lot to say about our selfishness at the family level. If you see someone in need, help them. If you have friends and family that sees you in need they should help you. That's the way it should go.
Most of us do not have a concept of why America is selfless towards other countries but in all reality it is for our country's own good.

This isn't a military question, it is a political question.

Are kids in our country more important than kids elsewhere in the world? Do other kids not deserve help?

Yes, there are plenty of kids here that are struggling and need help, but it appears you are ignorant to the things that are being done in the US to help. There are lots of programs designed to help in the states. And, if you live within your means, middle class families should not be struggling to keep food on the table. They might have to sacrifice elsewhere, but not to keep food on the table.

Maybe we do too much, but don't try to say nothing is done for our own kids.

EDIT - I also wanted to add that the kids were are "helping" overseas.... many of them do not have food, clothing, education or a roof over their head (sometimes in part because of other actions American has taken). I do believe they deserve our assistance. We have programs to help children in those situations in the US, so I am sorry if I don't agree that Miss-Middle-Class-with-2-cars-and-her-own-home deserves that assistance more than starving and homeless children around the world. I believe in working for what we get, and being thankful for our homes, family and lifestyle because without our help some of these kids never learn to read or make it to adulthood.

It would be easier to provide assistance to more people here if so many people didn't take advantage of the system we have now.

I think we mostly do it because we have to keep foreign relations good. If we don't keep our allies, all hell can break loose. Egypt for example right now. They are an ally of ours in the Middle East. We do NOT want to lose them on our side. At the same time, we send millions of dollars to them every year for their military and other things. If we lose them as our ally, we can count on terrorism rising, sorry if others disagree, I'm not trying to start a political fight here. But we send money overseas to help because we almost have to. I totally agree in the irony though that when we Americans need help we can't always get it. But it's not a military thing, it's a political thing. The military does what comes down from the Commander in Chief.

Our foreign aid budget is LESS than ONE PERCENT of our annual budget.

In polling data, however, most americians guess a number at 20% or higher.

Less that 1%. Often less than half of 1%.

The answers are far to detailed and enormous to get into here, but although the politicians LOVE to say this -it rarely (if ever) has anything to do helping children or families ANYWHERE. It has to do with power and resources -and the ones that we need. Like oil -that's why we "care" about the Middle East. Too bad for Darfur that they aren't sitting on huge stockpiles of oil, or maybe we would have cared about the wide-scale genocide and raping that's been going on there for years. Same thing for Rwanda in the 90s. When we get involved in other skirmishes and military actions or wars to help allies, it's because we NEED those allies or we need something that comes from the area in dispute. That's the short answer! It has nothing to do with caring for humanity -but that's the sound bite that makes them look good.

On the opposite side, many would say we ARE helping families here by fighting and having a huge military presence in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, etc. because it (supposedly -another point that can be debated for days) helps stop terrorism against us and since we need imports and resources from these areas -the American citizens would be in a mess if we couldn't get them (and really, if we couldn't get a bunch of oil -we would be in a mess right now).

Yes political reasons are one. We also feel bad for people in other countries that literally have nothing. I currently live in a country where 75-80% of the people live in poverty. Literally their houses are cinderblock or disgarded tin roofing with one room, no running water, outhouse just steps from the house, the entire family lives in that one room, the windows are just shutters etc. The school system is horrendous, the super wealthy only care about themselves and there are no programs to help anyone. No shelters, no food banks, no government assistance and the hospital near me looks like a MASH unit. And this is only one country in the world there are hundreds of others just like it. The only things here that are helping the people are church missionaries and a couple of countries helping to improve conditions with money and resources. America has no political interest in this country but it is good to help people who are worse off than others.