The commentary posted last week titled “Egyptian Turmoil” suggested that private American citizens with substantial resources should consider replicating what Herbert Hoover and other private citizens accomplished with what the American Relief Administration (ARA) did in Europe and Russia after World War I in the Mideast. “Famines were killing millions of people, The ARA set up a system of import and distribution that was feeding over ten million people a day in just the Soviet Union.”

I just finished reading “Partners in Command” about George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower by Mark Perry, and have another suggestion that I believe is worthy of consideration. Europe was in desperate shape from the devastation of World War II. Marshall said, “What was needed to prevent future wars was not just military strength, but also economic well-being, which included the provision of fuel, food, and other necessities of life for the people of those nations that had suffered most during the war.”

I see some analogies with what is happening in several countries in the Mideast, but I’ll mostly confine my comments to Egypt. There was a revolution in Egypt after shortages and increases in prices of food and fuel. The Muslim Brotherhood used their well-organized political structure to elect a man who then failed to address the economic problems while doing everything he could to establish an Islamic state with hard-line religious provisions. The economy continued to suffer, and even some Muslim Brotherhood supporters joined the protest that deposed Morisi by massive protests. The protests continue while tourism, one of the cornerstones of the Egyptian economy, must be declining to nearly nothing.

There must be multiple opportunities for either private citizens of the United States or the U.S. government to provide relief to people suffering in the Mideast. I’ll throw in the many thousands of refugees from the war in Syria and the thousands of Egyptian Iraqi Christians who have been forced out of their homes. Other Mideast countries including Saudi Arabia have pledged $8 billion in aid. I will be skeptical if that is going to the military or whatever government is there to receive it. I can only imagine that the aid will reach the citizens who need it only if a direct distribution system could be established. I cringe to think if non-Muslims were to volunteer to go operate such centers, but perhaps I’m too skeptical.  

I tend to believe more in the efforts of private citizens such as what was organized by Herbert Hoover after World War I, but can’t discount how the Marshall Plan approved by the U.S. Congress saved millions of Europeans from starvation. What I do believe is that something that resembles an actual policy would be better than anything compared to Mr. Obama’s “hide and watch policy.”