When to give aid to another country

[phibetakappa]

In another forum topic someone asked what Ayn Rand had to say about Israel. I found the following answer she gave to a question after a lecture. She gives the exact answer I'd expect, which is a good one, not muddied-up and/or unnecessarily complicated by non-essential concrete minutia.

After the 1973 Boston, Ford Hall Forum lecture "Censorship: Local and Express" Ayn Rand was asked:

What should the United States do about the 1973 Arab-Israeli War?

Give all help possible to Israel. Consider what is at stake. It is not the moral duty of any country to send men to die helping another country. The help Israel needs is technology and military weapons--and they need them desperately. Why should we help Israel? Israel is fighting not just the Arabs but Soviet Russia, who is sending the Arabs armaments. Russia is after control of the Mediterranean and oil.

Further, why are the Arabs against Israel? (This is the main reason I support Israel.) The Arabs are the one of the least developed cultures. They are still practically nomads. Their culture is primitive, and they resent Israel because it's the sole beachhead of modern science and civilization on their continent. When you have civilized men fighting savages, you support the civilized men, no matter who they are. Israel is a mixed economy inclined toward socialism. But when it comes to the power of the mind --the development of industry in that wasted desert continent-- versus savages who don't want to use their minds, then if one cares about the future of civilization, don't wait for the government to do something. Give whatever you can. This is the first time I've contributed to a public cause: helping Israel in an emergency.

See the recent publication "The Ayn Rand Answers: Best of her Q&A" pages 96-97

I especially like the sentence:

But when it comes to the power of the mind versus savages who don't want to use their minds, then if one cares about the future of civilization, don't wait for the government to do something. Give whatever you can.