Taking from the poor to give to those hurt by our weapons

One of my regular readers pointed this out to me first, and I have to agree with him that it is horrific.

What is particularly shocking is that money has been diverted away from causes which haven't suddenly become less pressing in order to fund the reconstruction of Iraq. My feelings are that if we couldn't afford to finish the job without seriously harming other countries then we shouldn't have invaded. This was never presented as one of the costs of war when the government were lobbying for our support for it.

Having said that, where the war on terror involves asking countries not to harbour terrorists et al. I do not see it as being as unfair or unreasonable to divert more funds to help countries which are actively helping to promote world security.

One of my strong feelings is that much of our aid should be conditional on the countries to whom we are giving it taking certain measures to not only help themselves but to help preserve the environment they have there. This, of course, has to be done through a process of discussion and negotiation, not imposed as a demand, but would help many problems in the long-term and help focus the attentions of governments who ignore many of their people upon their people.