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...
Good post.
Just a couple of comments.
The Indoensian Government sorely needs to take some lessons in diplomacy and gratitude, especially one Jusuf Kalla, the vice President. That said, I think that the cruz of his comments aren't far off the mark, and that is that after two or three months of immeidate relief where our logistic supremacy can be put to good use, longer term, they need engineers, road builders, and loans, not soldiers.
True enough, but...
Right now the Indonesians are coming across as craven ingrates. I'm very sure that isn't true, but it is the unmistakable impression that they give, especially the government. It certainly isn't true for the people on the ground in Aceh. They are kiss-the-ground-at-our-feet grateful, and I think that is resented just a bit by the folks in Jakarta.
Indonesians are resourceful and hard working. Once things have been stabilized they will be pretty mcu able to take care of themselves. We wouldn't want French tropps hanging around Florida for two years after a hurricane, either.
Achenese actually like Americans. In four years there, I never had a harsh word spoken against me. The Acehnese follow a kind of folk Islam that has little in common with the Saudi "Wahabbi" variety that has been responsible for so much blood and mayhem over the past several years.
All you have to do is take a look at the response of the local to our presence. It is hugely popular.
I doubt the Acehnese are nearly as hospitible to the "Laskar Muhjahideen" and "Islamic Defender Front" jackasses from Java with their holier-than-thou line of crap.
To add to that, the Indonesian Government have been
on an extermination program for their non-muslim
minorities for years...remember that the million
"communists" slaughtered by Sukarno where in fact
Christians and others.
The Acehnese dishtinguished themselves by
being even far more genocidal than the worst
of the government, to the point of declaring
independence for the sole reason of establishing
an extremist Sharia in Aceh that even Bin Laden and
the Taliban would be ashamed of.
The Christians was an important minority in Aceh
and they have all but disappeared, murdered or
forcibly converted and all the churches have been
destroyed but for a few token ones here and there.
The aid workers in Aceh suffer from near criminal
ignorance and stupidity and their near fate is
nothing else but beneficial gene pool cleansing.
The Buddhist scriptures often berate those so-called
"wise men" that would venture naked in a tiger infested
jungle as reducing themselves to the level of
carnivore food. Bunch a Gandhians, matter of fact!
Here's the disgustingly ugly
naked fakir, as Churchill called him,
responsible for 100 millions deaths
at India's partition
Beuark!!!
