Helping Foreign Countries

You know, I just had a sudden thought. Which is odd, I know. I rarely think at all, let alone about politics and foreign affairs. I was talking with Kitiy about stuff, and things we want to do with our lives. Somewhere along the lines she said "12 kids and 6 African kids." I'm not sure just how serious she was being, but somehow my brain caught onto the "adopting 6 African kids" part and started ranting through my mouth (well...okay, hands in this case, but hey, it's the Internet). You know, that program thing where you "adopt" a starving kid by sending them $2 a month to help feed them and you get notices about how they're doing?

But bear with me. America right now is still dealing with all this Iraq stuff, when we really only recently got done with Afghanistan just before it all, where we've set up their whole democratic government for them, trained their troops, helped get their economy going, and basically set up their entire civilization using a formula that (so far) has worked well for us.

So...why can't we do that for the starving African people? You've seen those commercials, right? You've seen those documentaries, and read articles, and probably even donated money to countless funds by now. There's even a special program for adopting those starving children, to help them get better lives.

Why can't we do for them what we did for Iraq, just without the bombs and killing? I think we've got our priorities all fucked up. We're so busy making enemies and dealing with potential threats that we can't stop to help the people that are actually asking for it.
It would cost us a lot of money, and require a lot of manpower, but our government, Bush in particular, didn't seem to mind all that when we were dealing with the Taliban and Saddam, did he? Let's just go down to Africa and start with the small things. Start out by building up farms and houses and a water supply and medical supplies and so on. Start with the basics, and move up from there, and make sure, every step of the way, that those people are involved and satisfied.

It wouldn't be easy, that's for sure, but whoever said it was about doing things the easy way? Sure, at least Iraq already had cities and modern technology (to a degree). These people need the more basic necessities: food, water, medicine, homes, a whole freaking civilization. But we can't expect things to improve by tossing food, which only was acquired because people pity these hungry Africans, and by adopting their homeless kids and such....Let's do it the right way and build up their lives instead of hoping their problems will go away.

Again...it wouldn't be easy....and I sure as hell don't want to start this kind of movement, because I wouldn't know the first thing about getting things done. But hey...we're not looking for easy, and easiest isn't always the best either. At the very least, I think this idea is much better than Bush's idea of a War on Terror at least. Don't you think? What would you rather spend taxes for? War? Or helping another civilization get on it's feet?

Of course, I'm probably wrong, aren't I? Maybe they're doing all this and I just need to do my research?
I still think the government should focus on this and not war, though.