re: #309 darthstar

Wasn’t our initial offer after the ‘04 tsunami something like $35 million? And after people reacted with “That’s it?” we upped the donation to $350 million, saying the 35 million was just for starters?

Yes, that would explain why some people thought we weren’t doing as much as we could to start.

What really helped our image after the tsunami in 2004 was Bill Clinton and George HW Bush teaming up to elicit aid.

We, Australia, Singapore, South Korea, and some few others were on the spot with more than our checkbooks, within days of the quake striking. At the request of the Indonesian government, the carrier group we sent even stopped launching aircraft patrols while in Indonesian waters. This response was sold short by the international liberal media, like a teenager sneering at an insufficient allowance. The domestic media, especially NPR, downplayed our work. Their on-the-spot correspondent described—but did not identify—American & Australian airlift and distribution efforts in the region, in the course of talking about the UN, making it seem like it was the UN which was a dynamo of responsiveness. They then cut to a segment purporting to show White House dithering. The template, above all the template…