Where is international aid? Bush basically told them, "no thank you."

[sepdet]

My mom somehow wanted me to rally the international internet community with a snap of my fingers and encourage other governments to send help since our own is doing such a botch-up job of getting basic humanitarian supplies to the desperate fast enough.


I don't know what she thought I could do, but I figured hey, couldn't hurt to drop a pebble in the pond (or maybe oy, it was easier than telling her no). So I started poking around. However, as I suspected...a quick scour of the news shows that the US has not, in fact, managed to piss off the world so much that no one was feeling charitable. They HAVE offered.

Excerpt from USAToday.com article:

____

With offers from the four corners of the globe pouring in, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has decided "no offer that can help alleviate the suffering of the people in the afflicted area will be refused," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday. (Related news: World responds with compassion -- mostly)

However, in Moscow, a Russian official said the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency had rejected a Russian offer to dispatch rescue teams and other aid.

On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin sent condolences to Bush and said Russia was prepared to help if asked.

Boats, aircraft, tents, blankets, generators, cash assistance and medical teams have been offered to the U.S. government in Washington or in embassies overseas.

Offers have been received from Russia, Japan, Canada, France, Honduras, Germany, Venezuela, Jamaica, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, China, South Korea, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, NATO and the Organization of American States, the spokesman said.

Still, Bush told ABC-TV: "I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn't asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country's going to rise up and take care of it."

________________




Now, while America may barge in on just about anyone without a by-your-leave, it doesn't take kindly to foreigners dropping troops on our soil. Bush said, in effect, "we can go it alone, no thank you!" Small wonder -- especially with emergency personnel being shot at, and with such horrific conditions -- the international community took Bush at his word that the US can take care of its own. In fact, I think we do have adequate resources: we've got thousands upon thousands of National Guard, and commandeering a few dozen flatbeds from Sparklettes with clean water plus a drop of MREs would not be that difficult. Unfortunately stuff does not equal logistics, and the emergency services don't yet have the coordination or numbers to manage levee repair, search and rescue, law enforcement, evacuation, and feeding and medical care for all those stranded.

I have eight 5-gallon jugs of drinking water on my patio, because Sparklettes is stupid and kept giving me more when I hadn't ordered any.

Gads I wish I had a big enough catapult to send them to the New Orleans Convention Center.

Comments

[wazsgirl.livejournal.com]

Saw this in passing----I'm not going to defend the administration much as some situations needed to be handled better and weren't. Nothing can change that or defend it and I have friends that HAVE lost their homes/schools/livelihood down there and it horrifies me.

BUT. The US is not alone in being reluctant to immediately let foreign groups into their problems/disasters. Russia especially has been reluctant (at first) to get people involved in rescues: The Kursk, for example, could have been resolved sooner but they didn't alert people. The most recent incident was luckier in that the individuals managed to survive but the rest of the world wasn't immediately notified because the Russians were reluctant to involve others at first. I'm HOPING, within another day or two, that they'll start pulling in anyone who can help from overseas. The USNS Comfort and other groups are still about 3 days away, after all.

[tayefeth.livejournal.com]

If the Gulf Coast states don't take the Dutch up on their offer of help, they're setting new landspeed records for idiocy. The Dutch have centuries of experience keeping the ocean at bay. Storms like Katrina, Camille, and the 1953 storm that broke the dikes in the Netherlands don't come around often, but that doesn't mean that storm-mitigation isn't worth the effort and expense. Of course, accepting the Dutch help would mean admitting that prayer isn't very effective against rising water...

[tarioflorien.livejournal.com]

Sweetie, the problem is that most of our National Guard is deployed overseas or on Homeland Security Detail in other areas of the nation. I know, my son is one of them. New Orleans and Mississippi Gulf Coast is where all his cousins are, he calls me almost in tears, he wants to go so badly.

[sepdet.livejournal.com]

Also there's a law that half of the national guard has to be kept in each home state. California is now sending troops-- but it wasn't asked until today. I know that a large chunk of Hill Air Force Base in Utah still has its boys at home, ditto for Camp Pendleton. California also sent in its swift-water rescue teams on Tuesday -- there's squads from San Diego, LA,and all over in the water, plucking people out; I know that because there was a news video showing the boats and the guys in New Orleans going throught the ninth district. So there are people helping...it's just not enough, and not well-coordinated enough.

Scattered across this country we have a LOT of trained bodies who could be there already, if the administration had realized the need sooner. Bush and other authorities keep insisting we have enouhh troops to send in more if need be, though I'm sure youre you're right: the Iraq nightmare is keeping too many away.

Yes, Russia's another that's stubborn about letting foreigners help, but at least this year with that little sub they swallowed their pride and called for help. So the Brits managed to get all the way around the globe and extricate it before they ran out of air. It's so frustrating that Shrub is yet another "we can handle it!" even when we're not handling it sort of leader.

I would vent and scream and be angry but I'm too sad even to do that. For me it's not even politics. I just wish we could do more for these folks, and that everything that COULD be done was being done.