"It certainly doesn't include private donations either from the US or anywhere else (Sainsbury foundation in the UK for example) I don't believe I ever claimed it did."
The only difference is that American private charities give vastly more than any other country on the planet by far, plus private charity giving in America makes up a bigger percentage of the total aid given out, than for any other OECD country.
So when the socialist Euro-weenis (where the government controls more of the economy than America) keep quoting just government aid when comparing aid between Europe and America, they are being deliberately disingenuous.
BTW Bill Gates has already given out some $25 Billion to the Gates Foundation so far, with even more to come, and already done more to stop malaria in Africa for example than the entire EU.
How much is the Sainsbusry Foundation worth, and how much have they put into helping the poor, the sick and the dying in Africa for example?)
"Nor did I claim that it included millitary spend and I certainly did not demean in any way the sacrifices made by the US troops (although how that is pertinent to this debate, I'm not sure)."
Its pertinent in the same way Americans scarified hundreds of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars in today's money, to save Europe from an evil German Nazi dictatorship, and restore and in some cases install democratic regimes in most European countries in World War II and then put in even more vast amounts under the Marshal Aid to restore Europeans economies.
All that money and lives lost was aid, given free of charge by America.
Same as the vast aid that America has given and is continuing to give to Afghanistan and Iraq to bring democracy to those countries.
Euro-weeines always choose to define aid in a very narrow way that makes them look far batter than they really are.
"You however seem to be claiming that the CIA is in fact disseminating falsehoods in order to bring down the US.
Perhaps you could tell me which story you want told and Ill try and find the facts to support it"
No less a person that US Senator John Macain has called the CIA a "rogue" organization, just a few weeks ago.
He also called them an agenda driven bunch of folks who deliberately set out to bring down a sitting American president, President Bush.
In fact during the elections, the CIA became so rabid that one of their agents wrote an vicious anti-Bush book anonymously, an agent who has now left the CIA and only recently professed his great admiration for Bin Laden in a TV interview.
http://www.rightnation.us/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t61218.html
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/004nbtqq.asp
Note that John Macain is considered so non partisan that, even though a Republican, he was the first choice of John Kerry to be his VP.