Aid To the U.S.

In the past the U.S. has sent large sums of money and aid to countries in need. We are currently the largest donor of aid but not the largest donor compared to how rich our country is. In the past I have heard lots of complaining of how we should not spend all this money helping other countries but should spend it here at home. From abroad we here complaints of how the U.S. could do so much more to help.
After hurricane Katrina, many were stunned at how ill prepared our country was to take a blow from natural causes. After this for the first time I can remember, other countries started to give us aid. The attached article has Kuwait sending "US$500-million-worth of oil products and other humanitarian aid". This has been been sent as a thankyou for coming to their rescue in the Gulf War. Other countries, "freinds an foes" are offering large sums of money in order to help us recover from such an event. In total, over 60 countries are pleging aid.
My question is do you think this aid pouring in to the U.S. will help justify us sending aid? What about countries such as Cuba and Iran...do you think this is their way of trying to establish better relations with the U.S.? Also the idea of aid to other countries, to help disperse the costs of such events, is it a worthy goal?