Posted on 01/05/2005 4:53:00 PM PST by Congressman Billybob
Professional critics have decried President Bush’s three-day “delay” in reacting to the tsunami disasters. But if the President used that time to understand the dimensions of the disaster, and to keep the United Nations from controlling relief efforts, every minute was justified. When the UN handles dollars, tens of millions disappear. When the UN handles protection and relief, tens of thousands of people die.
Instead of leaving money and authority to the UN, the US created a “core group” with Japan, Australia and India. The lead personnel are the military of those nations. That makes sense, because military units are trained to move men and materials and to provide food and medical care as they go.
The difference between a US-led relief effort and a UN-butchered one was just demonstrated in Indonesia. US helicopters were flying tons of water, food and other supplies into areas otherwise unreachable, while UN bureaucrats were holding “coordinating meetings” at five-star hotels far from the ravaged coasts.
Meantime, a group of white, liberal, American Democrats, led by former Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, held a hush-hush meeting in New York with Kofi Annan. The UN Secretary General was instructed to attend without his aides, for a candid discussion of how to “save” his career and “save” the UN.
The condescension of holding this meeting, trying to hide it from the press, and thinking its purposes can be accomplished, is staggering. Annan and the UN have yet to come clean on the Oil for Food scandal, the biggest financial scandal in history. The idea that the UN can survive with Annan at the helm and sweep that scandal under the rug should be recognized as insane by any professional politician, even ones who still cannot understand why John Kerry’s campaign sank like a brick in a well.
But the subject is broader than this disaster and the UN. Deaths from the tsunamis in Asia and Africa now stand at about 150,000. Numbers will rise, as more are discovered missing and some survivors die of preventable causes before relief efforts are complete. Total deaths will approach 200,000.
That is horrendous. The American press, however, is incompetent as usual in putting this story in context. This is not the worst national disaster in recent times. It is not even one of the top ten in the last century. Anyone who wants to know more about comparative natural disasters than the average member of the MSM (mainstream media) should Google “natural disaster” along with China, then India, then Bangladesh.
There is one supreme irony in the international reactions to the role of the United States in relief efforts for survivors of the tsunamis. Some incredibly stupid people have called the US “stingy,” which I wrote about last week. President Bush showed tremendous restraint when he called the first author of such comments “misinformed.”
One duty of every President is restraint in responding to bigotry and ignorance by other international speakers. For instance, however well-deserved it might be, no President should call the French “ungrateful, arrogant, unwashed b*stards.”
I raise this subject for a different reason. By and large, the same international “leaders” who denigrate the charitable efforts of the United States are the same who attack the US for its “unjustified” actions against Saddam Hussein. Any reporter smart enough to make that connection should make an additional connection.
The tsunami disaster is horrible, at 200,000 deaths. These floods were a natural phenomenon. Saddam Hussein has deliberately murdered at least 500,000 people.
Therefore, if it is important that the world pay attention and help the survivors of the tsunamis, it is more important that the world act to end the murders in Iraq. And while we’re on that subject, North Korea has murdered about 2 million of its own people plus a few thousand citizens of other nations.
Still, much of the world clings to the benighted view that the US should have negotiated more with Hussein, and should negotiate further with North Korea. Any competent observer should realize it is as useless to negotiate with a mass murderer, as with a tsunami on its way across an ocean.
Both will continue on their path until their power dissipates. Both will kill all in their path until that time.
So, the tsunamis in Asia and Africa are a triple disaster. A disaster for the people killed in a few terrible hours. A second disaster for those who will die of disease in the next month. A continuing disaster in the death of millions of people around the world from avoidable causes, because the lessons of these tsunamis were not learned and acted upon.
About the Author: John Armor is a First Amendment attorney and author who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. CongressmanBillybob@earthlink.net
John / Billybob
Our efforts truly deserve more good news like this. Thank you.
"no President should call the French “ungrateful, arrogant, unwashed b*stards.”
I agree. So please allow me.
The French are ungrateful, arrogant, unwashed bastards.
As of today, the UN is in charge of relief efforts.
The story behind that should be fascinating.
I will wait for another book like Patrick Moynihan's A dangerous Place.
Ditto!
I respectfully have to disagree here, Congressman.
The UN Oil For Fraud program is a perfect example you can negotiate with a mass murderer if you have something he wants and are willing to be bought off for it.
You and a mass murderer (under the right circumstances) can scratch each others' backs and mutually get something out of it.
Try that approach with a tsunami wave!
The President does not hold the nation's purse strings, Congress does. The President cannot simply unilateraly allocate funds to this disaster. In fact, I understand the $350 million he did pledge was the entire amount previously appropriated by Congress in the budget for all emergency relief (including domestic tornados, hurricanes and earthquakes.) His initial pledge of $35,000 must have been an allocation they originally found that could be unsed for foreign relief purposes. I understand that the President's pledge has now been approved by the newly covened Congress.
Detractors of the President's actions lack a fundamental understanding of how our governmental system works.
I haven't seen the details. Maybe it's just a cosmetic sop. All the people DELIVERING the aid should be Americans, wearing American uniforms. The people who are getting help should know where that aid is coming from
Billybob
It is unconstitutional to take our tax money and give it to foreigners. That is left to the states and the people.
Altho I'm sure the tsunami tragedy is severe, and not wanting to sound like a sceptic, just how in the world are they coming up with these 140,000 dead figures? Is the world getting scammed? Is there really any way to come up with these incredible figures? Is it remotely possible that, especially since the UN wants to be the distributor of the largess (viz. Oil for Food), maybe this is a big-time money grab by the 3rd world, and that perhaps many people are going to get incredibly rich from this? Is there a major redistribution of wealth occurring right now? Am I being sinful with my doubting mind?
Yes, this tragedy is real. It will only turn into a giant scam if the UN gets its hands on the money.
Billybob
A few additional notes:
* The US, with our solid traditions of independent, individual, private, tax deductable giving, naturally has a low *government aid* figure vis a vis this disaster than the Euro nanny states. I read that we are over 200M in terms of non governmental giving, *thus far* in the US!
* How much are our military efforts to render aid costing? That's no chump change. Gee, how many German, French, Swedish and Norwegian ships, choppers and planes are down there right now? Hmmmmmm ......
* Now for the non PC. A number of the governments besides Indonesia both knew about the high probability of a tsunami strike and did nothing. In the case of Thailand, there was apparently fear that a false alarm would be bad for tourism. Not sure what the deal was with India and Sri Lanka. In any case, if *I* had been sitting there, knowing there had been a subduction zone earthquake off of Sumatra, I would have issued a warning. People in high places in every affected country knew about the earthquake minutes after it happened, what with all the seismo stuff on the web these days. Hmmmmm ....
* Well, the images of our real, substantial, hands on aid cannot be stopped. I heard Mr. Coffee stayed on the ski slopes for a few days after the disaster. Hmmmmmmm ....
When did this meeting take place? I thought it was before the election. Was it more recent than that?
"Am I being sinful with my doubting mind?"
No. You have every reason to believe an ample portion of any given funds will be misappropriated.
You are sane. Praise the Lord and give thanks for it.
I dunno, congersman, them demmycrats got away with rape, adultery, watching Rwanda tear itself to bits, and selling secret military technology to our enemies. It's not a fur stretch to expect them to believe that they think they can extend the same longevity to ol' Kofi.
How many vietnamese people were bombed, shot and killed by US army?
Please tell us more about natural disasters more important that the last tsunami in south asia. Which ones?
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