US Aid Fuels Record Child Deaths, Congress Cheers
The Al Jazeera piece highlights Save the Children's grim finding: Explosive weapons caused a record number of child deaths last year. What goes unmentioned, or at least unscrutinized, is the source of many of those explosives. For example, the Biden administration bypassed Congress in December 2023 and again in March 2024 to send over $100 million in tank shells and artillery to Israel (Source:
Department of Defense press releases, congressional records). This 'aid' package includes munitions actively being deployed in Gaza, where UN agencies report over 15,000 children have been killed by such weapons. So, while Save the Children counts the lifeless bodies, the US Congress—many of whom received substantial donations from groups like AIPAC (OpenSecrets.org shows over $16 million in
pro-Israel PAC contributions in 2022 to members of Congress)—continues to rubber-stamp billions more. It seems the 'cost of doing business' for some politicians involves an unfortunate, but entirely predictable, spike in global child casualty rates. How many 'record' death tolls before 'aid' becomes complicity?