President Obama can't even order the rescue of people without getting the George W. Bush treatment by France.
This editorial is puzzled by the reaction:
President Obama's ambition to improve the global image of the United States has some way to go if the response to America's aid operation in Haiti is anything to go by. Washington acted quickly and decisively within hours of the earthquake, mobilising its armed forces on a scale that no country in the world can match. "We have to be there for them in their hour of need," the President said.
This generous act of altruism has been greeted with extraordinary churlishness. America has been pilloried for not getting assistance to Haiti's people more quickly, as though the staggering logistical challenges posed by the disaster did not exist. It has been criticised for pouring in troops, yet without a strong security presence there was a danger of a descent into anarchy. And it has been vilified for daring to take a lead, in a country whose government is barely functioning, with Alain Joyandet, France's minister for "co-operation", levelling the ludicrous accusation that the US was "occupying" Haiti.
Go figure. Even that reason God gave us JDAMs had to open his pie hole about our mission. Whatever. I'm sure a lot of his people will wish for a humanitarian rescue as their slow-motion Bolivarian earthquake shatters their lives and well being.
Not to worry, world. No matter how many lunatics spout off about us, our military forces will still be the first to step up anywhere there are people desperate for help. That's who we are.
Some will bitch. That's who they are.
Others help, too, no doubt, but the scale and speed of our abilities is unique and not replacable by any other equally altruistic nation.
Truly, never in the field of human misery was so much criticism leveled by so many to so few.
