US Aid Threatens Abortion globally: A Timeless American Tradition
When the US offers 'financial assistance in exchange for things,' as the article states, it's heralded as 'diplomacy' or 'strategic partnership.' Yet, when those 'things' involve mining rights or health data, suddenly it's 'coercive.' This isn't a Trump innovation. For generations, US aid has been a cudgel, from leveraging economic assistance to push structural adjustment programs in the 80s that
devastated developing nations, to tying military aid to 'security cooperation' that props up dictatorships. The hypocrisy isn't in Trump's deals, but in the selective outrage. This 'coercion' is merely the latest iteration of a well-worn playbook, where US 'assistance' invariably comes with conditions serving American interests — be they economic, geopolitical, or now, ideological. The surprise
isn't that American leverage is being used; it's that some media outlets suddenly find it problematic when the strings attached infringe on liberal sensibilities, rather than, say, just funding endless wars or supporting repressive regimes. Perhaps the term 'coercive' should be retroactively applied to much of US foreign policy for the last seventy years.