you quote it yourself.
Each of the mosques in Iraq is not a inherantly religious issue its a community issue, the Egyption sewer project and its associated works is a health issue, the old cathedral/mosque in Cyprus is a heritage and culture issue and the internet in Mali is an infrastructure and educational issue.

Its the same code that says you can lecture foriegn people about the bible if you can dress it up as health education:yeah:

The question I suppose would be if US tax dollars would be allowed to refurbish a church here in the States for historical reasons, for example. Have taxpayers funded repairs on the Old North Church (of Paul Revere fame)?

That said, why put internet access in a mosque in North Africa? It's OK in my book as long as we get to be root and read all their stuff and know what they are looking at.

I thought the translation of mosque into english was:Weapons cache:shifty:

Not even just for historical reasons. If a chuch is one of the buildings destroyed by natural disaster it doesn't violate any Church/State bans to repair those buildings along with all the others.

I'd think FEMA would be "colorblind" in that sense.

It's perfectly valid to discuss not funding any such foreign aid. I tend to think that we should expect something tangible in return for any foreign aid given. Vote against us in the UN—no more aid. Your state propaganda, erm, "press" publishes anti-american diatribes... no aid for you, etc. Can't live with simple terms like that, look elsewhere for your pork.

I'm willing to try the "hearts and minds" thing for a while with no strings, but I think a serious cost-benefit analysis needs to be done, including how it is seen by the locals (as a gift to be thankful for (the only acceptable response, IMHO), or some sort of appeasement).