Posted on 12/27/2004 2:04:39 PM PST by ejdrapes
I was watching CNN's Inside Politics today (no transcript up yet) and they had a panel on - someone from the Washington Post, LA Times (Ron Brownstein) and Time magazine (Karen Tumulty). They were discussing our response to the disaster and the host of the program mentioned that the UN called our response "stingy". Then the panel went on to talk about how we "fumbled" this and were basically AWOL for one day. This just really made my blood boil. What have other countries done? The Brits say over 10,000 of their citizens were on holiday in that area. It's a large tourist area for Europeans. Where's the criticism of the EU and its member nations? And do we really have to play politics at a time like this?
We're damned if we do-we're damned if we don't!
We are called stingy for the response we made-If we had jumped in with more, we would have been accused of showboating.
Just once, we need to stand back and do nothing-just to see what the response to that would be.
why would that be unfortunate?
- Your right, what was I thinking? Why should we offer anyone a helping hand? Why should we help our fellow human beings who have just suffered what ranks as one of the worst disasters in living memory? /sarcasm off
You are pretty cold hearted and don't know when to put politics aside.
I'm heartened to see liberals are still in their blame America mode. For awhile after the election I was afraid they might get. I see now I worried needlessly for nothing. It seems like Ronald Brownstein and Karen Tumulty are continuing with the same "Its all Bush's fault" theme as if we never had an election this year.
What a bunch of crap. If we get involved, we are taking over the world, going for the oil, etc. If we don't, we're "stingy". Fortunately, I'm an accountant, and Ladies and Gentlemen....it is cheaper to be stingy. Now, if we can just get past that nasty code of ethics thing the Prez has going for him, we'd be on Easy Street.....
The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least-appreciated people in all the earth.
As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse. Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did.
They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Misssissippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.
When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it is the United States that hurries into help... Managua Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples. So far this spring, 59 American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.
The Marshall Plan .. the Truman Policy .. all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent war-mongering Americans.
I'd like to see one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplanes.
Come on... let's hear it! Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tristar or the Douglas 107? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all international lines except Russia fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or women on the moon?
You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon, not once, but several times ... and safely home again. You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everyone to look at. Even the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, most of them ... unless they are breaking Canadian laws .. are getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend here.
When the Americans get out of this bind ... as they will... who could blame them if they said 'the hell with the rest of the world'. Let someone else buy the Israel bonds, Let someone else build or repair foreign dams or design foreign buildings that won't shake apart in earthquakes.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke. I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble.
Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbours have faced it alone and I am one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles.
I hope Canada is not one of these. But there are many smug, self-righteous Canadians. And finally, the American Red Cross was told at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans this morning that it was broke.
This year's disasters .. with the year less than half-over… has taken it all and nobody...but nobody... has helped.
Gordon Sinclair
I found a couple of links.
Try www.friendsacrossamerica.com/tribute.html
Or do a google on Gordon Sinclair on America. Lots of good stuff.
Never mind, I see you beat me to it!
Politics never plays a part in America's reaction to the suffering of others. Are you too blind to see that the UN is the cold hearted, disaster politizing slime bag here????
Funny, my mind wandered while reading...to an alcoholic/addict...they love you when the money is there to support their habit...and they're viscious evil creatures when the well runs dry...
You know we all like to be thanked or have some sort of gratitude expressed for helping, but like the parent and child who complains about their Christmas gifts, the parent must teach that child a lesson in gratitude.
America has been the worlds gift horse long enough! I want to see what other nations 'donate' against their income...I'd really like to know. We found out over the holidays that Red states are more generous than Blue States, so I'd really like to know about the rest of the world. What country or people are more generous than the United States? In addition if one searches, "Middle East aid," it's amazing to see the amount of money pouring into these countries.
America is and has always been the most generous country in the world. If the UN really said that, we should stop funding them.
Get the UN and koffee annan out of the US and the US out of the UN.
they wanted US navy helicopters, ships, complaints about why the only tsumani warning centers are "controlled" by the US for only the Pacific (Hawaii and Alaska I believe), blah, blah, blah.
then there was some genius who was saying "this was 10 times worse then 9-11" - why he felt the need to compare a natural calamity like this, to a purposeful terrorist attack, I do not know.
oh.. and youre so rightious.
Q Apparently the U.N. emergency relief coordinator today called the U.S. and other governments stingy for spending only a tenth -- or two-tenths of a percent of GNP for international assistance. Any response to that?
MR. DUFFY: Well, as we all know, the United States is one of the largest contributors -- in fact, I think it's the largest contributor to international relief and aid efforts, not only through the government, but through charitable organizations. The American people are very giving. We'll continue to be that and we'll be a leading partner in this effort that lies ahead.
Press Gaggle by Trent Duffy This is apparently the source of the "stingy" comment
You'll see answers to that question going in both directions. That's because the anti-American lefties will always, and I mean always, compare the giving of the U.S. -by the government- compared to what other nation's governments give, and in that specific little niche, other countries do better, and therefore they feel validated in crowing about how heartless and selfish Americans are.
Of course, if you add in the amounts given by charities, and also the uncounted millions in relief that are regularly provided through our military (and are not counted in their "government" figures), we blow them away by an insane amount.
But that doesn't fit the storyline. You know how it goes.
Qwinn
"oh..you're so righteous."
I believe you omitted a "self" between,so, and ,righteous,.
see post #102 to see what the response would be (is). accusations of cold heartedness and lack of discernment from the slow and sanctimonious.
Reflecting on this subject, I have become more furious by the minute. I sincerely wish Jim would grant a profanity exemption for this thread, because I came dangerously close to getting myself permanently banned...
and I'm a Mormon!!
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