Israa Yassin, 18, from the village of Qab Elias, who is studying computer science, told me: “This whole program is helping to make the youth capable of transforming this country into what it should be and can be. We are good, and we have the capabilities and we can do a lot, but we don’t get the chance. My brother just finished high school, and he could not afford [university]. His future is really stopped. The U.S. is giving us a chance to make a difference. I do believe if we are given the chance, we can excel. ... We will not be underestimated anymore. It is really sad when you see a whole generation in Lebanese villages — hundreds of guys doing nothing — no work, not going to college.”

After getting the U.S. scholarship, said Yassin, “my family and my community feel differently about America. Why would they hate someone who is helping them?”

Word of the American scholarships has spread quickly; the program is now being swamped with applications for next year, a majority from young women. Wissal Chaaban, 18, from Tripoli, also attending the Lebanese American University and studying marketing, told me: “We have a lot of talent in the Middle East, and young people do not feel appreciated. They feel their voice is shut down and not heard enough.”

This program is in America’s interest, she said, because it sends young people to colleges that “encourage openness, to accept the other, no matter how different, even if he was from another religion.”

I wish my government was giving more scholarships to Americans, but since we budget this money specifically for foreign aid, let’s use it intelligently. We can still give military aid — but in the right proportion.

While in Amman, I interviewed some public schoolteachers at Jordan’s impressive Queen Rania Teacher Academy, which works with a team from Columbia University to upgrade teaching skills. We talked about the contrast between the $13.5 million in U.S. scholarships and the $1.3 billion in military aid, and Jumana Jabr, an English teacher in an Amman public school, summed it up better than I ever could:

One is “for making people,” she said, “and the other is for killing people.” If America wants to spend money on training soldiers, she added, well, “teachers are also soldiers, so why don’t you spend the money training us? We’re the ones training the soldiers you’re spending the $1.3 billion on.”