tom_thinks

So, once again Bush has blown an opportunity to improve the image of the US overseas. Instead of reaching out and using the vast resources of our country to aid the millions of people affected by the tsunamis across Asia, Bush, proposed 15 million dollars in aid from his vacation home. Then undr criticism he upped it to 35 million dollars. What a big spender. Its a good thing he didn't dip into the 40 million he's spending on his own inauguration, because with Bush in charge we're all going to need one hell of a party to ease the pain right? The fact is Bush and the US government are being stingy AND foolish. Not only are we barely giving out a week's lottery winnings to aid the largest natural disaster in hundreds of years, but we're squandering an opportunity to show Muslim nations that the United States can also be a helpful force in their region. Clearly being percieved as a nice guy by millions of Muslims hasn't been something Bush has ever been interested in, and our country suffers for it.
Many individual Americans and charitible groups are picking up the slack (see below to donate), but that shouldn't let Bush and the government off the hook.
From the Boston Globe:

The perception that America is the most generous country in the world is one held by a majority of Americans, according a 2001 poll by the Program on International Policy Attitudes based at the University of Maryland. The think tank, which studies public attitudes toward various international topics, found that the average American believes that the United States spends 24 percent of its budget on assistance to developing nations, more than 20 times the actual figure. Even when researchers told those being questioned that foreign aid does not include military assistance to other countries, the average response was that the United States spends 23 percent of its budget on foreign aid.

But the relatively low US per capita donation to the tsunami-ravaged region reflects a larger pattern of a decline in official US foreign assistance in recent decades.

In the aftermath of World War II, the US government gave as much as 2 percent of its total gross national product to help countries rebuild. That figure dropped to about 0.5 percent of GNP during most of the 1960s and 1970s, and it fell precipitously during the Reagan administration to its current level of about 0.15 percent of GNP, according to figures compiled by Sachs and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development based in Paris.

Its about time the US government and George Bush start living up to the extpectations of the American people. We have the means to spend 87 billion dollars in one chunk for an unecessary war in Iraq, 3.5 billion dollars for disaster relief from the Florida hurricanes, but only 35 million dollars to help in this huge disaster. If you're as pissed off about this as I am, join MoveOn's call to the President to shell out some cash. http://www.moveon.org/tsunamirelief/

I'm sure that you've heard about the horrible Tsunamis resulting from a massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean. There are ove 50,000 people known dead and millions of people have been displaced. Please join me in donating to the International Federation of the Red Cross & Red Crescent to aid in the relief effort.