Posted on 01/02/2005 4:00:27 PM PST by wagglebee
Columnist Charles Krauthammer blasted U.N. officials and other America-bashers Sunday morning for trying to paint the U.S.'s foreign aid contribution as "stingy" in the wake of the Asia tsunami disaster - especially since the facts prove exactly the opposite.
"We are six percent, or less, of the world's population," Krauthammer told his fellow "Fox News Sunday" panelists. "We give almost half [of the global foreign aid]. ... We give 60 percent of all the food aid on the planet."
And that's not all: "We maintain a military infrastructure that keeps the peace in the world," he noted. "We are the only people who do that."
"It's simply irresponsible to talk about the United States as anything other than the most generous nation in the world," Krauthammer said.
The conservative columnist was responding to "FNS" panelist Ceci Connolly, who suggested that U.S. aid contributions were stingy in comparison to the nearly $1 billion of federal relief that poured into the state of Florida during last year's hurricane epidemic, which killed a mere 100 Americans.
Using Connolly's math, a contribution proportionate to the 120,000 deaths reported so far in the tsunami crisis would compel the U.S. to donate $1.2 trillion in disaster relief to the affected countries.
It's time to say "HEY!" where is averyone else? Where are the liberals and socialists? The ones with the loud voices and long fingers?
I'm so glad Krauthammer is on our team. He is always right on target with the numbers and his commentary.
It needed to be said. And God knows the MSM would prefer to skip the whole thing...
Thank you. I am familiar with this subject for a good reason. See my home page.
Bookmarking and bumping ...
Yup! I keep wanting to see Brit's Special Report on a day when Fred Barnes can be the Middle-of-the roader, Mort Kondrake the Liberal, and Krauthammer the Conservative. Really don't see any need for Cici, Juan, and the other uberlibs.
Charles Krauthammer ....you tell em Charlie!
CC smells like Compost
This discussion is reaching the bottom line! The people in SE Asia are suffering from the worst natural disaster since decades and you are whining that Florida - part of one of the worlds richest countries - got nothing? It is a shame. Instead of doing the best to help the victims of this flooding, some are moaning about allegedly missed grattitude and wish a rivalry between the rich nations who gives more. I´m speechless.
Whoa, Nellie...I'm not wanting foreign aid for the US. I'm wanting foreigners and our anti-American MSM, libs and tut-tutters to shut the hell up about what we're giving and how fast! My donation is in the mail to a trustworthy US company that will send more than 3,000 meals to tsunami survivors for the $100 I sent them, so peddle your guilt elsewhere.
Then why do you criticize others for NOT having noticed the "utter lack of a polite offer for assistance by a single foreign government" regarding disasters at home?
This is a sandbox game: If you throw mud on me, I´ll throw mud on you. Shameful and childish.
"if you throw mud on me"
...so you're either a lib or member of the MSM (or standing close by them), because that's where my criticism is directed and that's where it sticks. I note the lack of offers of assistance out of a nasty habit I picked up as a reporter...seeing a story from all angles...and because it justifies the hefty amount the US gov spent in FLA. The MSM/libs try to pass that off as vote buying when, in fact, FEMA was doing what has to be done when there is nowhere to turn for help. There never are outside offers of help when the US has such a disaster, and pointing out that the aid door only swings out isn't a solicitation, it's just a fact. Refusing to face facts...now that's shameful and childish.
I know that your criticism was directed against those who criticize the US efforts to help. And neither am I a liberal nor am I standing close to the MSM. I just think that this mud-throwing should stop - I didn´t say that I participate in this game. Oh, and when the US was hit on Sept 11th 2001, the whole free world offered assistance! People all over the world donated money for the victims families... kids who lost a parent were even flown over to Germany for vacations to get some distraction. Please see actually the story from ALL angles and not only pretend to do so. And now let´s stop this f*kin´ childish game and go on with real issues. The discussion "who gives more, you are stingy!" "No, YOU are stingy!" helps nobody, but out there are enough who need help!
Michael, Yiu know that I read the EU/German papers daily.
I agree with you about being fair.
Todays headline in the Der Spiegel, US Airforce there and helping, while the EU will have it's first meeting on the 7th. The inability of the eu/un to go to work immediately, coupled with the scandals that have plaqued the UN recently, prompted the US, AUstralia and India to go ahead with relief and not wait for bureaucratic delays.
I do get tired of the daily anti-american onslaught from Europe.
Election time must be approaching for Schroeder? He must want to lay the groundwork for it. I bet you, that it will become the predominant topic in his bid to be elected again. This time though, it may bite him (and unfortunately Germany) in the Butt.
Michael,
There is too much anti-America bashing going on, in Germany for instance, to let comments about America being “stingy” in humanitarian aid to go uncontested.
Many times you are here to stick up for Germany, is that wrong? No.
It’s not wrong to stand up for America and point out the hypocrisy coming from idiots in the UN either.
"...I didn´t say that I participate in this game."
Right...yet you felt free to make ME a participant, but that's not slinging mud?
The way I participate in this game is to send $300-$400 in care packages to Marines in Iraq every month, and this year I'll be adding $100/mo donation to the folks at breedlove.org to help feed tsunami survivors. I don't do this for any reason other than that it's the right thing to do. I'm one of the millions of hateful conservatives who do what they can, seeking nothing and knowing it will never be enough to make some people happy.
Where I draw the line is when someone tells me the truth is off limits because the world is hurting. The world is always hurting, and the US is always helping. The world's perception of the US is an issue 24/7, and when that perception is being twisted against the US it must be corrected at once.
Seeing the story from all angles it's obvious that, while first and foremost right now, relief is just one part of the picture, and flooding the area with cash is not the answer. Guerrilla wars and Islamic fundamentalists were making life hell in that region before the tsunami and they're sure to be revived when the debris is cleared and the dead are buried. We'd damn well better keep track of who's giving what and to whom. That's not a competition, it's common sense.
And pardon me for not growing misty-eyed over the 9/11 gestures made by foreign countries. That was a blip on the world heart monitor that flatlined again as soon as the US showed it was serious about eradicating terror wherever it exists. When they realized it might cost them blood and fortune, their sympathy turned to schadenfreude and showed how truely meaningless those gestures were.
Now criticize me all you want. I have boxes to ship.
No, RJL, it is in no way wrong to put the misinformations of the media or internationally organized Leftists into right terms. It is actually the opposite of wrong. But, if you had listened carefully to my words, you could know that I was not criticizing you or others for proving the stingy-comments false, but for moaning about a lack of help after the FL hurricanes! You can stand on your own feet, the Asians cannot.
If the MSM had spent less time bitching about, politicizing and second-guessing the Bush administration's hurricane relief efforts they might have noticed the utter lack of even a polite offer of assistance from a single foreign government.
I tell you what? The US can stand on its own feet; no country offered help when thousands of East Germans lost their homes 2002 because of river floodings. I think western countries need no help, because they can bear the consequences of such natural disasters alone. If you cannot agree with that and stay with this sentence, so be it.
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