Foreign Relations Disaster

An entry in the Salon War Room points out that after Hurricane Mitch hit Central America in 1998 and killed 9,000 people, the Clinton administration gave $988 million in aid to the affected countries. So far, Bush has promised $35 million to the countries hit by the recent earthquake and tsunamis. This after an initial paltry sum of $15 million. Embarrassing enough. But then yesterday, at a briefing on US aid efforts, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman said this:

So our expectation is, is that the European Union, the United Nations, other countries will also join in this. This is not something, although as Andrew said, we make a substantial contribution, more than anyone else in these emergencies, this is certainly not for us to do alone.

Keep in mind that Spain has promised twice as much as we have, and the World Bank has promised $250 million. And, typical for the Bush administration, we aren't coordinating our efforts with the UN; instead, we have another "coalition of the willing" (this one actually has some other countries in it). Sigh.

(This is basically a summary of what was in Salon, but I know a lot of you don't have subscriptions there.)

Update: Bush upped it to $350 million. That's a little better. Did you know that the US spends less than a quarter of a percent of its budget on foreign aid?

Oh, wait. The government shouldn't give any money because it's not theirs to give. They extorted it from taxpayers. So sayeth The Ayn Rand Institute. Giving aid to tsunami victims is as bad as the Marshall Plan. (Stupid fuckers.)