Is the United States the good St. Nicholas or an Ebenezer Scrooge?

Most Americans hold these truths to be self-evident: Torture is wrong; attacking another country that hasn’t attacked you is wrong; occupying another country with your army and imposing your will on its people is wrong. These policies are not only immoral. They are illegal.

Blowback is a term invented by the Central Intelligence Agency to describe the unintended consequences of policies kept secret from the American people. Originally intended for internal use only, blowback today increasingly characterizes global reaction to American policies in and out of the Middle East.

A leaked document from the Pentagon at the beginning of the new year seemed to mark a milestone. For years, the budget planners have simply added money for new weapons, and more money for actual wars, to spending for all the Cold-War-era systems already in the pipeline. The document seemed to signal that the Pentagon was finally acknowledging the need to make choices. It laid out an array of cuts that would slow the recent surge in military spending.

Despite an increase in promised aid to tsunami-affected countries last week, the United States’ aid offering still isn’t topping the list. Australia, for one, has donated much more. But the United States could make up for its somewhat meager offering by forgiving debt payments for tsunami countries. A temporary moratorium on payments won’t be enough. It’s time to go farther-much farther-and end debt obligations for tsunami countries in Southeast Asia. Trouble is, we probably won’t, says foreign policy analyst Mark Engler. As we reach out to those struggling to recover from a natural disaster, our country has an important opportunity to address one of the core issues contributing to the impoverishment of the tsunami-stricken nations: the huge foreign debts that rob their governments of money to provide for human needs.