Posted by Dan Ewert : 6/02/2003 10:49:00 PM (Archive Link)
Check out this piece by Mark Steyn. He toured around Iraq and has come to the conclusion that things aren’t that bad. In fact, he found that the locals are more worried about NGOs (non-governmental organizations) than they are about Americans. And well they should be. These groups include Oxfam, World Food Program and others. They are essentially welfare organizations that go around “discovering” problems no matter how small or non-existent they may be. The problem with any sort of welfare group, though, is they think they must save the world. That’s noble enough, except they also think the goal must and can only be accomplished with money. So they’ll start throwing money at Iraq, start giving away things and they’ll be the ones who will make the country a slave state incapable of self-sufficiency, not America, though America will surely get the blame. If you get a people used to receiving things for free and for which they put forth no effort to attain, they’ll have little incentive to do things on their own. Not only do you corrupt a populace but you also disrupt the natural capitalist dynamics which further suppress growth.

It’s interesting how Steyn refers to the NGOs as the “new imperial class.” He explains it thus, “Like many imperialists, they're well-meaning: they see their charges as helpless and dependent, which happy condition has the benefit of justifying an ever-growing aid bureaucracy in perpetuity.” You’ll, of course, remember how Bush was supposed to be the imperialist. The American position is no secret, however. We want to set up a new, friendly, and self-sufficient government in Iraq. The NGO agenda, though, is far more nebulous. At any rate, the attitude of these organizations is patently racist and screams cultural arrogance (again, isn’t it the U.S. that’s supposed to be guilty of this?). These liberal groups believe the Iraqis unable to support themselves and incapable of taking care of their own basic needs. The sad thing is that once they start meddling, they’ll only prove the theory correct without ever realizing that they were the ones that caused it.