NYP column: It's about the tragedy - not more Bush-bashing

Comment #4

dragon — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 15:40:56 GMT

Thanks, Todd. I didn't know this either. This is one of those "facts" that is little researched or questioned, and most of us have not got the foggiest idea on how it all works.

Comment #3

Todd — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 17:53:00 GMT

No, MillionsWanted, that's not correct. The USA is the world's biggest provider of aid BY FAR - every single year, without fail. People calling the USA "stingy" are either ill-informed or a name that I cannot repeat here.

To think that the USA's initial $15 million aid would have been the total is rediculous, and shows that you have no idea how the USA aid money works.

Since you don't know, I'll tell you.

The US Congress is the bod... [ More ]

Comment #2

MillionsWanted — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 17:38:28 GMT

$ 15 million in aid? That's "stingy".
Hadn't UN called the US government "stingy", they probably would not have increased the aid.

Comment #1

Rick G — Sat, 01 Jan 2005 22:28:20 GMT

Well said, Todd. This is not about politics and the President did not do anything wrong in his approach to aid appropriation (adjusting it as needs became more apparent). The idiot from the UN should be chastised as the United States has always been the biggest and foremost contributor to international aid and especially to international disaster relief aid. The original 35 mil. was based on 5,000 fatalities and initial recovery needs. Now it's at 150,000 fatali... [ More ]

Original Blog Entry: NYP column: It's about the tragedy - not more Bush-bashing

Todd — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 14:53:57 GMT

THE political and ideological exploitation of perhaps the worst natural disaster in all our lifetimes is almost beyond belief - were it not for the fact that nothing these days is beyond belief.

Even as tears spring into the most hard-hearted person's eyes at both the unimaginable scope of the tragedy and at the wrenching individual stories of loss, opinion leaders just can't help themselves.

They are using this cataclysm as little more than cheap debate fodder about the nature and character of the United States, its president and its citizens.

Don't misunderstand.

It is fine and proper to have a debate and discussion about the degree of generosity the United States could, should and must show in the wake of this literally earth-shaking event.

But at this moment, the United States is not the issue.

The foreign-aid budget of the United States is not the issue.

Our government should not be the focal point of the discussion right now.

Don't we owe the dead, dying and injured the minimal grace not to convert their suffering into a chat-show segment - the latest left-right clash over the Bush presidency?

And couldn't the editorialists at The New York Times have forborne - even just for a week - making use of the tsunami to complain about U.S. government spending on "development aid"?

Development aid is the blanket term for American grant money handed out to other countries, supposedly to help their economies grow. Development aid has nothing - nothing - to do with what has happened.

The aid at issue now is disaster relief.

Secretary of State Colin Powell found himself in the position of having to remind the world that over the past four years the United States has provided more such aid than all other nations on the planet combined.

It is appalling that he had to mention this, and that President Bush was compelled to cite the same innormation on Wednesday, because you're not supposed to brag about how charitable you are. But once a United Nations official decried the American aid pledge as "stingy," the administration had little choice.

Any rational person would have understood without having to be told what the president told the world on Wednesday morning, which is that the $35 million pledge "is only the beginning of our help."

But maybe people are looking for a sideshow to distract them from the sickening pictures and the....

[ More ]