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"Meetings are held, emails are sent, phone calls are made, and something like 520,000 children die of malnutrition, diarrhea, tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV." prospect.org/2026/05/22/w...

There is also the case to be made that we lost an enormous amount of softpower thanks to this unnecessary cut since us AId was both the carrot and the stick.

not just that soft power is good, but other countries with interests that are not aligned with ours are continuing to fund at least some things globally (China, for instance, is funding a pretty massive construction boom in Africa), and now there is no counterweight from the US.

I agree in general, but I think the danger of China filling our shoes is overblown, though. China lends $35 for every dollar it donates. That is not a substitute for American aid.

I think they would cheer it, radicalization is their political currency because it justifies eternal conflict and the money that can be extracted from the deaths of thousands

I use Afghanistan in particular, not only because of my brother working there, but because we spent twenty years trying (and failing) to specifically fix the radicalization problem there in the wake of 9/11.