Jeff Danovich's commentary "Foreign aid keeps us safe" (Dec.5) could not be further from the truth. It is wrong to rob middle-class American taxpayers in order to enrich wealthy foreign leaders.
In most cases, U.S. foreign aid does more harm than good. Economist Dambisa Moyo, who wrote the New York Times best-selling book "Dead Aid" about why foreign aid programs have failed developing countries, notes that "financial assistance has fostered dependency, encouraged corruption and ultimately perpetuated poverty and poor governance" among its recipients.
The largest recipient of our aid (at $3 billion yearly) is Israel, which has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. It receives this money only because of its powerful lobby in Washington. How does that make us more secure?
Presidential candidate Ron Paul is correct when he calls for an end to all U.S. foreign aid, an end to our foreign wars and the dismantling of our global empire, which we can no longer afford. That is how we protect America.
Ray Gordon. Bel Air