(no subject)

[apocalypsos]

As pointed out by dargie:

Initial amount alloted to the war in Iraq by the U.S.: $87 billion
Initial amount alloted to the Asia tsunami/earthquake disaster relief by the U.S.: $15 million

Granted, like I said, it's the initial amount and the government plans on pledging more, but put the two numbers next to one another and they're still pretty sad.

Comments

[sabotabby]

Amount allotted to Bush's inauguration: $30-40 million (not including security).

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

Well, of COURSE that's more important than helping those brown people in Asia. WHAT are you implying???

[cyprinella]

I do, however, think that the bulk of the money came from political donations.

Not that it makes it right and fuck is my work week going to suck but yeah. I think the only thing coming out of public coffers is the security. Someone correct if I'm wrong?

[jim-smith.livejournal.com]

Initial amount alloted to the war in Iraq by the U.S.: $87 billion

That was the amount asked for some six months into the war.

Initial amount alloted to the Asia tsunami/earthquake disaster relief by the U.S.: $15 million

And this amount comes three days after the tsunami.

Can we not wait and see what happens before we decide the US is a bunch of uncaring assholes?

[thesumo.livejournal.com]

I think we decided that a couple of years ago, at least. Nice attempt though.
<3

[dargie.livejournal.com]

I don't believe the American people are uncaring assholes; I think they're some of the most generous people on earth. But if our government makes us look like uncaring assholes, we're sort of screwed.

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

Word.

[auguris]

Can we not wait and see what happens before we decide the US is a bunch of uncaring assholes?

The US is not full of uncaring assholes. The US gov't, on the other hand...

[doqz.livejournal.com]

Powell apparently said that it's eventually going to be billions of dollars.

Apparently already on the verge of retirement and not giving a shit, when challenged by a UN rep on his stinginess he explained exactly who was carrying the UN budget, matching the combined humanitarian donations of the rest of the world and stopped _just_ short of proposing that the rep do something anatomically impossible and deeply unhygenic.

[nycdeb.livejournal.com]

and stopped _just_ short of proposing that the rep do something anatomically impossible and deeply unhygenic.

and you know, I do think the litle U.N. man was a tad afeared of the Sec of State after that 'cause he was singing QUITE a different tune this afternoon. We are now - according to him - the very soul of generosity.

I must admit that if Powell scowled at me - I'd be slightly nervous too. He's much bigger than I am. :-)

[nycdeb.livejournal.com]

Can we not wait and see what happens before we decide the US is a bunch of uncaring assholes?

thank you! Now look - I'm not a huge fan of the government and their priorities but let's wait two tics before deciding the government can't be bothered.

A $15 million dollar commitment out of the starting gate is more than the E.U. opened with and the U.S. commitment went up as more information came back from ongoing needs assessment. It's frankly more ka-ching than everyone but Japan started out offering and it does not include the immediate cash (yes, cash) turned over the governments of the effected countries from the U.S. embassy budgets by the end of THAT DAY. It does not include many of the resources and equipment throughout the Pacific theater being moved immediately into place to assist when the massive influx of materials arrive from all over. Sure, the ships are military but in many cases, that's the only way a lot of this stuff is gonna get moved around.

You don't just throw money at people and governments dazed by chaos and confusion and say, "here's a blank check. deal." You also try to assist in other ways. And in some cases the flyovers already being done (some by these resources we moved) are the only way they can get a rough assessment of areas they cannot reach so they have some idea - any idea of what to expect when they DO get there.

There IS an assessment going on and the U.S. contribution to their needs will change as more information comes to light.

Is the U.S. government spending more money on other - far less worthy - things? Yes. Could the U.S. government give more to places and people who need it as a matter of routine? Of course they could and they should and maybe one day enough people will demand it of their government that the government will listen. But at least for right now for this single situation, I think they are on the right course. Will they STAY in my good graces in this regard? I don't know. That depends on whether they continue to provide assistance, materials, expertise after the news cameras focus on something else.

And whether they attempt to use this tragedy to distract the American public from their ongoing clusterf*ck in Iraq.

Cynical? Me?

[acetal.livejournal.com]

Interesting. The New Zealand government has made an initial pledge of $5 million (U.S. $3.4 million) and has also promised to match donations dollar for dollar. That's in addition to the material aid in the form of transport aircraft, etc we're already giving.

We have a population of 4 million.

Australia has pledged U.S. $27.3 million and they have a population of 20 million. They are also donating considerable material aid.

If we're really going to do some sort of comparison, we should do it on the basis of population and GDP. But this isn't really about who donates the most. This is about helping the people who need it.

By the way, the U.S. has increased its pledge to U.S. $35 million. Which the U.S. State Department has described as "a line of credit". Um. Doesn't that usually mean you have to pay it back?

[doqz.livejournal.com]

$21 billion out of that number were for reconstruction, iirc.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_redpanda_/]

I'm thinkin' pull the troops out of Iraq to go help the Indian Ocean peoples. Two birds, one stone. But eh, I'm a naive blue-state hippie liberal. ;)

[seferin.livejournal.com]

You can't make money from charity, thus Bush does not care.

[tviokh.livejournal.com]

Mf.

As I said over in verminefasciste's thread:

I sense a large rise in our national debt.
I'd like to find out which ass they're pulling all this relief money from, 'cause last I checked we were several trillion in the whole and had a defecit of several hundred billion.
I could use access to an ass that can just create money from thin air 'cause mine doesn't seem to have that optional module.

Pardon my cynicism here but:

- We're already funding a war we can't win.
- Our economy is TEH SUCKETH at the moment.
- We've got assloads of problems at home that could use some 'aid' money tossed at 'em.
- I guess the Sudan can just rot; we don't care about them. Millions dead due to genocide, civil war, and famine that's all been going on for decades with very little outside aid? Yeah, but it's not a tidal wave, OMG, so it's not nearly as horrible.