Aid Grows Amid Remarks About President's Absence

This chaps my ass. So, not only did we not give enough money soon enough, we are also now being critized for not caring enough since President Bush continued his vacation and didn't give a public press conference on how bad he felt about this tragedy.

What's he supposed to do, go out to Asia and start helping clear rubble so that people can feel good about how the United States cares??

These people whining and complaining should all be gathered up, and as Ace of Spades so eloquently put it, given a can of shut the fuck up juice and just go crawl back into their hole.

"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."

No, Mr. Gelb. The Muslim world could care less how nice we are. Where's the thanks and the understanding that we're the good guys from freeing millions of Muslims from a murderous regieme in Iraq, and millions of Muslims from genocide in Serbia? Even after sacrificing our treasure, and the lives of the best of our generation, the Muslim world continues to think that we are at war with them because we are fighting terror around the world.

"Some foreign policy specialists said Bush's actions and words both communicated a lack of urgency about an event that will loom as large in the collective memories of several countries as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks do in the United States. "When that many human beings die -- at the hands of terrorists or nature -- you've got to show that this matters to you, that you care," said Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations."

This is now being bandied about - comparing the natural disaster to the work of maniacs. Two totally different things. They are NOT the same and should NOT be compared.