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tompe - sorry, your reading of that quote is mistaken. A "country" can't do anything - it's just a geographic area under a common government. The American government is not the same as the country. Further, I have never seen foreign aid appropriated by a government referred to as "charity." Msmith was using metonomy, and was certainly referring to charitable giving by individual Americans. It's exactly the same usage as is typical: the country voted for the Democrats, the country produces fifty million tons of pig iron, the country is wild about football, etc.
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