The Right Thing To Do

The United States government and our people are responding to the Indian Ocean tsunami with generosity and compassion. That is the proper immediate response to the tragedy.

But some have to complain about us. Listen to Leslie Gelb of the Council on Foreign Relations in the Washington Post article cited:

Gelb said what appears to be a grudging increase in effort sends the wrong message, at a time when dollar totals matter less than a clear statement about U.S. intentions. Noting that the disaster occurred at a time when large numbers of people in many nations -- especially Muslim ones such as Indonesia -- object to U.S. policies in Iraq, he said Bush was missing an opportunity to demonstrate American benevolence.

"People do watch and see what we do," he said. "Here's an opportunity to remind people of the good we do, and he [Bush] can do it without changing his policy on Iraq or terrorism."

What a complete crock. Gelb sees a tragedy and it inspires him as an opportunity to slam the administration. Just how compassionate is Gelb when his reaction is to complain that we are losing an opportunity to improve our image?

If our image isn't any better now after all we've done over the decades, this tragedy isn't going to do it. But we will respond and help anyway. But what of his complaint anyway? Would we get good press with a lip-biting, misty-eyed public statement?

In August 23, 2002 I posted "Are We Chumps or What?" and wrote an off the cuff list of our aid to the Moslem world over the years:

1. Keeping the Soviets from occupying Iran (1947?)
2. Keeping the Soviets at bay against Turkey (1947?)
3. Rescuing Egypt from the French, British, and Israelis (1956)
4. Sending an aircraft carrier to help Pakistan survive yet another warwith India (1971)
5. Imposing a ceasefire in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War before the Israelis captured Egypt's 3rd Army and marched on Cairo (1973)
6. Rescuing the PLO from Israel (and losing 250 Marines in a suicidebombing)(1983?)
7. Rescuing Iraq from the Ayatollah Khomeini (1980s)
8. Keeping the Iranians from sinking Kuwait's oil tankers (1987-88)
9. Rescuing the Saudis from a threatened Iraqi invasion (1990)
10. Rescuing Kuwaitis from Saddam (1991)
11. Rescuing the Kurds from Saddam Hussein (1991)
12. Assisting with floods in Bangladesh (1991?)
13. Saving countless Somalis from starvation (1992)
14. Rescuing Bosnian Moslems (1995)
15. Rescuing Kosovo Moslems (1999)
16. Rescuing Afghanis from the Taliban/Al Qaeda dictatorship (2001)
17. Sending aid to help earthquake victims in Iran (2002)

Let's add rescuing the Iraqis from Saddam and helping the Iranians in the Bam earthquake last year as aid to Moslems. As I wrote in the 2002 post:

These are just the things off the top of my head. I'm sure I have some of the years wrong too, but the point is still valid nonetheless. Did we do this out of pure altruism? Of course not. But does that diminish the fact that we helped Moslems? No. If we truly hated Moslems, we would not have carried out these acts. "Let 'em rot!" would have been our excuse to do nothing.

We help the tsunami victims not for good public relations. We help because it is the right thing to do. Could we turn down the politics until the families of the victims bury their dead?