http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323485704578255593489895424.html
THIS POLICY IS BI-PARTISAN…..EISENHOWER ADMINISTRATION ENCOURAGED THE HUNGARIANS TO REVOLT AGAINST COMMUNISM AND RUSSIA….PROMISING SUPPORT. THE HUNGARIANS DID SO AND FOUGHT BRAVELY UNTIL THE RUSSIAN TANKS ENTERED THE STREETS OF BUDAPEST AND SLAUGHTERED THE PARTISANS….THE US DID NOT LIFT A FINGER TO HELP.PRESIDENT KENNEDY’S ADMINISTRATION ENCOURAGED AND HELPED TRAIN CUBAN EXPATS FOR AN INVASION OF CUBA AND PROMISED AIR SUPPORT. WHEN CASTRO’S THUGS BUTCHERED THE FIGHTERS IN THE BAY OF PIGS, THERE WAS NO AIR SUPPORT WHATEVER FROM THE UNITED STATES.BOTH OF THESE BETRAYALS ENCOURAGED THE SOVIET UNION AND CONVINCED THE HOSTAGE NATIONS OF EASTERN EUROPE THAT THEY COULD NEVER COUNT ON US SUPPORT…..RSK
Isn’t it fitting that, as a final order of business in President Obama’s first term, the United States would haggle with France over the federal equivalent of a $2.15 check?
Last week, the Journal reported that the administration was asking the French to pay for the limited logistical support—mainly cargo flights and aerial refueling—that the U.S. had agreed to provide the French mission to Mali.
“French officials said they were particularly ‘perplexed’ last week when the U.S. . . . insisted on getting reimbursed for the costs,” the Journal’s Adam Entous and David Gauthier-Villars reported Sunday. “Other countries including Canada have offered to transport French military equipment and troops to Mali free of charge, according to French, European and Canadian officials. As a result, France is considering not using the U.S.”
By week’s end, however, the administration had agreed to cover the costs, estimated at around $600,000 a flight for 30 flights. Considering that the federal government spends just over $10 billion a day, or $115,000 a second, we’re talking about less than three minutes’ worth of the government’s time.
Is the effort worth it? “France expects the U.S. to do more to fight militants who have vowed to hit at Western interests and conducted an attack in Algeria that left at least 23 hostages dead, including at least one American citizen,” French officials told the Journal. Considering that, before France’s intervention, the local branch of al Qaeda was on the verge of overrunning a country larger than Texas and California combined, one might think the French had a point.