We Are the World
By sending help to tsunami victims, America takes advantage of a public diplomacy opportunity.
BY BRENDAN MINITER
Tuesday, January 4, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
Colin Powell and Jeb Bush are now on a diplomatic mission to the nations hit by the tsunami. But as residents from Thailand in Southeast Asia to Somalia on the horn of Africa pick through the debris, it will not be lost on them that not only are food, fresh water and other necessities streaming in from the free societies of the world, but also that a large portion of those necessities are arriving on American military transports.
This may seem unremarkable in America. After all, it is the U.S. military that has the “lift” capacity. But this tsunami is putting on display exactly what United Nations and European bureaucrats are loath to admit: that the U.S. and its military are forces for good in the world. From the wealth and freedom that allow Americans to generously give to those in need to the military infrastructure that enables much of that aid to be delivered, this natural disaster is an advertisement for the type of societies that best serve the people of the world.
Read the entire article on the Wall Street Journal website.
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Jacobse | Politics |
Let’s give credit where credit is due. After an initial mistep, perhaps excusable because the full scope of the disaster was not known, the Bush administration has responded brilliantly to the Asian Tsunami catastrophe.
It makes me feel good as a Christian and an American to see our military providing supplies and treating the wounded, and these efforts will do a world of good improving our nation’s image in the Islamic world.
UN vs. U.S. Military: Contrast and Compare (From Diplomad, an American diplomat stationed in southern Asia)
As of January 4, 2005 the U.N. had failed to send anyone to the site of the Tsunami. As of that date the U.S. military, lead by the crew of the Abraham Lincoln, had ferried thousands of tons of real relief to starving people.
Compare and contrast.
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The post below reports on the impending arrival of Ms. Margareeta Wahlstrom “United Nations Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and the Secretary-General’s Special Coordinator for Humanitarian Assistance in Tsunami-affected countries.”
She has spoken! At a large meeting this afternoon, she and the local UN rep, Mr. Bo “Please Wear Blue” Asplund have announced the arrival of yet another “United Nations Joint Assessment Team.” But this one is very, very ultra- special. According to the UNocrats, it’s not “just another assessment team.” Oh, no, banish that thought! You see, “This assessment team will coordinate all the other assessment teams.” In addition, the UN will set up a “Civil-Military Coordination Office to coordinate [that word! that word!] all military assistance because the military do not have experience in disaster relief (!)”
Let the mockery begin . . . .
# posted by Diplomad @ 6:32 PM Comments (100) | Trackbacks (14)
More UNreality . . . But the Dutch Get It
Well, dear friends, we’re now into the tenth day of the tsunami crisis and in this battered corner of Asia, the UN is nowhere to be seen — unless you count at meetings, in five-star hotels, and holding press conferences.
Aussies and Yanks continue to carry the overwhelming bulk of the burden, but some other fine folks also have jumped in: e.g., the New Zealanders have provided C-130 lift and an excellent and much-needed potable water distribution system; the Singaporeans have provided great helo support; the Indians have a hospital ship taking position off Sumatra. Spain and Netherlands have sent aircraft with supplies.
The UN continues to send its best product, bureaucrats. Just today the city’s Embassies got a letter from the local UN representative requesting a meeting for “Ms. Margareeta Wahlstrom, United Nations Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and the Secretary-General’s Special Coordinator for Humanitarian Assistance in Tsunami-afected countries.” Wow! Put that on a business card! And she must be really, really special because she has the word “coordinator” twice in her title!
The letter, in typically modest UN style, goes on to explain that “Ms. Wahlstrom’s main task will be to provide leadership and support to the international relief effort. She will undertake high-level consultations with the concerned governments in order to facilitate the delivery of international assistance.” Oh, and she’ll be visiting from January 4-5.
Once, again, a hearty Diplomadic “WOW!” She’s going to do all that in two days! The Australians and we have been feeding and otherwise helping tens-of-thousands of people stay alive for the past ten days, and still have a long, long way to go, but she’s going to wrap the whole thing up in a couple of days of meetings. Thank goodness she’s here to provide the poor lost Aussies and Yanks with leadership. The Diplomad bows in awe to such power and wisdom. The letter is signed, by the way, by the same UN official who suggested a couple of days back that the Australian and US air traffic controllers in Aceh should don UN blue (see our post of January 2.)
Ok, enough with the UN; you get the picture. Now to the EU. The EU could copy the Australian-American model of acting quickly and effectively to save lives, or they could copy the UN model of meeting at a leisurely pace to plan for the possibility of setting up a coordination center that will consider making a plan for the possibility of an operations center to consider beginning to request support for the tsunami’s victims. Ah, my wise friends, guess which model of “action” the EU chose? No need to emulate those “cowboys” from Australia and the USA with their airplanes and loading crews working round-the-clock; oh, no, much too tacky, sweaty and dirty. No need to feed into the system those goofy Aussiyankeebushowardian New World Anglo-Saxons already have created. No, they’ll follow the much more elegant Kofi Annan model. A couple of EU planners have shown up to begin making arrangements for an assessment team to arrive, etc., etc., you know the rest. Meanwhile, people die.
But all is not lost. The Dutch, who on occasion show the great common sense for which they were once justifiably famous, have signed up with the Aussiyankeebushowardian Core Group. Thanks to a European Diplomad (Yes, The Diplomadic insurgency has gone international!) we have in our possession a short situation report circulated by the Dutch at the most recent EU meeting here in this corner of the Far Abroad. This January 2 report is written by local Dutch diplomats who traveled to Aceh and saw the reality on the ground. We will cite the two principal paragraphs, and leave them unedited in their original rather charming Dutch-English,
The US military has arrived and is clearly establishing its presence everywhere in Banda Aceh. They completely have taken over the military hospital, which was a mess until yesterday but is now completely up and running. They brought big stocks of medicines, materials for the operation room, teams of doctors, water and food. Most of the patients who were lying in the hospital untreated for a week have undergone medical treatment by the US teams by this afternoon. US military have unloaded lots of heavy vehicles and organize the logistics with Indonesian military near the airport. A big camp is being set up at a major square in the town. Huge generators are ready to provide electricity. US helicopters fly to places which haven’t been reached for the whole week and drop food. The impression it makes on the people is also highly positive; finally something happens in the city of Banda Aceh and finally it seems some people are in control and are doing something. No talking but action. European countries are until now invisible on the ground. IOM staff (note: this is a USAID-funded organization) is very busy briefing the incoming Americans and Australians about the situation.
The US, Australia, Singapore and the Indonesian military have started a ‘Coalition Co-ordination Centre’ in Medan to organize all the incoming and outgoing military flights with aid. A sub-centre is established in Banda Aceh.”
Isn’t that nice? Europeans with a sense of reality.
The only fault The Diplomad can find with the Dutch report is that it understates the role of the Australians in the relief effort — they deserve considerably more credit than this report gives them. It’s hard to praise the Aussies too much for what they have done in the wake of the tsunami. They are absolutely splendid — too bad they’ve got that thing about that weird game, uh, cricket, is it?
Anyhow, soon I will return to my habitual corner of the Far Abroad and leave my colleagues here to deal with the UN, the EU and their Coordination Efforts.
Source of Information
http://diplomadic.blogspot.com/
This is the source of information regarding the reality of the United Nations and its role in the tsunami relief.
But, Missourian, I thought what was really important was that Americans weren’t taxed enough in order to funnel money through dozens of bureaucratic hands in order to ensure that really important bureaucrats spent plenty of time before TV cameras telling us what a wonderful job Europe and the UN are doing and that the Americans are really just a bunch of stingy ninnies. Not that Americans, Australians, and others had actual boots on the ground and ships in the ocean ensuring that as much as possible was done to feed, clothe, house and provide medical care to the survivors.
I guess I need to stop watching CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, and stop reading the New York Times, Washington Post and LA LA Times.
Regarding the tsunami from Scarborough Country talking head Jennifer Giroux of Women Influencing the Nation:
“Look at what we’re looking with just in this country with cloning, homosexuality, trying to make homosexual marriages, abortion, lack of God in the schools, taking Jesus out of Christmas. I can’t pretend to know the mind of God. But, historically, there have been warnings. And God, who is all-loving and all-good, and he will not be mocked.”
Note 5
Jennifer Giroux’s comment are noted.
What is your point?
Do you disagree with Ms. Giroux? If so, how.
What, if any, is your alternative theology?
Please note that I am not endorsing nor condemning Ms. Giroux’s remarks. I just wondered what point James intended to make by posting them.
Note 6: (I think part of my post was cut off accidentally.)
Giroux’s comments reflect not only poor theology but bad taste, in my opinion. Her remarks are strikingly similar to Jerry Fallwell’s implicitly blaming of the ACLU for the collapse of the World Trade Center and 9/11.
I think attributing any natural calamity (whether it’s a hurricane or flood or someone being born with a genetic defect) to the direct punishment of God is dangerous. Such misguided notions are responsible for things like the caste system in India which designates certain unfortunates as “untouchables” because of their afflictions which are seen as cosmic retribution (or “karma”).
You may as well tell a mother that her child drowned in the swimming pool as a punishment for her smoking pot as a teenager.
Note 6: (I think part of my post was cut off accidentally.)
Giroux’s comments reflect not only bad theology but poor taste, in my opinion. They are strikingly similar to Jerry Fallwell’s implicit blaming of the ACLU for the collapse of the World Trade Center and 9/11.
To attribute any natural calamity (whether it’s a hurricane, flood or a child being born with birth defects) to the direct punishment of God is dangerous. Such misguided notions are responsible for things like the caste system in India which designates certain unfortunately individuals as “untouchables” because of afflictions they have which are viewed as cosmic retribution (or “karma”).
You may as well tell a mother that her child drowned in a swimming pool as a punishment for her having smoked pot as a teenager.
Theology of Natural Disasters
Here I leave my area of expertise. I have promised everyone not to post on theology because I am no better informed on the topic than anyone else. However, I do think there is a passage in the New Testament about natural disaster, someone asked Jesus about a poor soul who had been hit by a falling tower.