Posted on 01/12/2005 6:31:56 PM PST by ConservativeMan55
Edited on 01/12/2005 8:26:44 PM PST by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
Per Foxnews Alert.
210,000 people have died in the Tsunami.
The worst disaster in the last 300 years.
It's a pity people were snookered into opening their wallets for such ingrates, especially when most of the "aid" will be stolen anyway.
the MREs aren't for the dead. when it comes time to distribute all this cash, cash for rebuilding, etc - its going to be doled out based on body count. its a difficult thing to say, but let's be honest here, just tossing around numbers of dead is a fairly simple way for their government to operate corruptly, there is no way to substantiate the claims.
Hopefully, someone will leave a crapload of bibles around, in multiple places, accidentally of course...
Several floods in China easily top the 2004 tsunami.
I've seen numbers as high as 140,000 for the Tokyo quake of 1923.
The 1976 Tangshan earthquake in China has some estimates for over 500,000.
Indonesia announced that U.S. and other foreign troops providing tsunami disaster relief must leave the country by the end of March and ordered aid workers Wednesday to declare their travel plans or face expulsion from devastated Aceh province on Sumatra island.
Leave now, leave all of them. Let them rely on that terrific Muslim aid.
There is a time and place for everything. This is not that time.
Lose the 'tude.
This is not about who they are. It is about who we are.
I think the people there are very grateful for the aid we're giving, it is the government that is the problem. What's worse is that the government was quite happy that this particular portion was destroyed since it was where they were already having the most problems.
People have the government they deserve.
What an idiot. That is STANDARD PRACTICE in the military. A supply vehicle is a target vehicle and so it helps to minimize the amout of time just sitting there.
I think there's a lot of frustration from folks who sympathize with the truly incomprehensible loss of life and the reception we as a nation have received from the government of Indonesia.
I don't think for a moment anyone at Free Republic who still has hold of their sanity thinks that this is comeuppance, or that these weren't people too.
I DO think there's a healthy (or unhealthy) dose of indignation over the treatment aid workers and our military have received over there not only from the government, but in some cases from the intended receipients of the very aid they're risking their lives to deliver.
I agree with your assessment of the death toll. I think before it's all over, half a million dead or more will be remembered for the Boxing Day Tsunami. As much as it is possible to wrap one's brain around such a staggering number, each one is mourned at the human level for their premature deaths.
At the same time, shame on the Indonesian government for making ANY decision that prolongs their citizen's suffering.
There is no "higher road" to take here. We sympathize with the victims, and we've opened our wallets and government coffers to those in need...To the tune of many hundreds of millions of unreported monies tied up in the logistics train.
These people are not friends of the United States. We aid them anyway. THAT is the moral high ground. When those efforts are stymied by the people in charge of that country, we have lived up to our obligation.
There are countries in the affected regions that are grateful for our help, and who accept it unconditionally. There is one antagonist nation who takes every opportunity to call America on the carpet for perceived wrongs against the followers of Islam, and seems bound and determined to make us beg to help them.
It would be truly a crime against humanity if the bigger tragedy was the aftermath of the Tsunami when aid could have reached the needy, but didn't because of religion and politics.
But the culpability would be on the government of Indonesia...
Thank you for your service.
I'm sure that some of the relief money will find its way into corrupt hands. So what? This isn't about them.
If you demand a "pure" accounting for every cent before something is done help a really great number of people in real- actual- today- sort of distress, then nothing could ever happen in time to be worthwhile.
Thanks for your post. I pray for those people every day. It's probably the most horrible thing we will ever see in our lifetime.
The area in the vicinity of the quake has some of the highest population densities in the world, are islands which tend to concentrate populations next to the water's edge and utilize construction techniques that are suitable for the tropics which makes for flimsy residential structures.
My suspicion that the real casualty numbers are much higher than reported.
No telling how many accumulations there are like this, but the mass of this huge floating debris pile is at least half human bodies. (Scroll to the bottom of the image...)
It has been reported that ships are encountering floating corpses many miles out to sea.
IMHO, no one will ever know the full magnitude of this loss of life.
I think they would be more ecstatic if it were 272,000 less rich people.
Bush won, Tancredo was not nominated..Get over it.
Well and truly said.
("American Express -- never leave home without it...")
you can't have a properly administered charity effort that involves providing cash, if dishonesty is rampant. suppose Sri Lanka ups the death toll tomorrow, can anyone prove it if they just say "oh, now its 70,000 for us". the same thing happened after 9-11, several people were arrested for fraud.
I don't think any of the aid should be based on the death toll. help the living, at least we can honestly identify who is alive and what they need (food, medicine, etc). provide other assistance based on the infrastructure destroyed.
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