The Center for European Policy Studies:
The generosity of Europe is uncontested and undisputed. In 2000, Europe (EU and member states) provided $25 billion of the world's $54 billion of development assistance.
From the OMB historical table:
International affairs F.Y. 2000
17.2 billion
From Col. David Hackworth-1997:
“We are currently spending over $10 billion a year just to maintain about 100,000 U.S. troops within NATO countries. When you add the indirect operating costs for overhead and weapons acquisition, the sticker price for U.S. participation in NATO virtually doubles to about $20 billion a year. Then plug in the Bosnias, Macedonias and Albanias and, BINGO, you're pushing $25 billion a year.”
25 billion of EU aid is nowhere near double the 17.2 billion of U.S. foreign aid.
On top of that, we spent as much on defending Europe from ghosts as they spent on foreign aid, so in effect- they spent what we gave them to spend.
Current Events » in reply to George W. Queeg
I couldn't get past the foreign aid bit.
