The U.S and the wrold

[_Martyr_]

Dito, except to add... what could anyone really offer the US in this situation except sympathy and wellwishes?

[Kaiser of Arabia]

Maybe we should have done what Germany did to us now when the Tsunami hit asia, blame them for not being energy efficant. How many nations would embargo us?

[Papewaio]

Well maybe more illegal immigrant constructions workers to rebuild the city and make bigger levies?

Seriously the Tsunami killed over 150,000 people, the count is between 175 and 250 thousand people. That is 3 orders of magnitude larger.

Also there was a major amount of finger pointing at those nations lack of early warning systems.

[Red Harvest]

strike for the south,

I understand the frustration. Right now I don't know what other countries can even send us. Heck, I don't even know what is needed. The main problem right now is access and lack of a power grid as well as flooding that is still present.

Chavez did make some statement today about providing heating oil--talk about an unlikely source of aid. This might not make sense to some, but there is concern that heating oil (which was going to be tight) will be too tight this winter with the refinery outages. It is at least a reasonable gesture.

As for global warming/oil etc., yes, I think it is a bit inappropriate for others to kick us when we are down, but I could point to some very strident U.S. posters who make similar statements about others at inappropriate times. Frankly, we should expect a bit of this since Dubya decided to snub the international community with Kyoto, and we are the biggest energy user having more impact than any other nation. Global warming is real, whether or not we agree about the causes, or the role of CO2. Telling everyone else to go screw themselves was not in our own best interests--despite what the short term thinkers believe.

[Redleg]

strike for the south,

As for global warming/oil etc., yes, I think it is a bit inappropriate for others to kick us when we are down, but I could point to some very strident U.S. posters who make similar statements about others at inappropriate times. Frankly, we should expect a bit of this since Dubya decided to snub the international community with Kyoto, and we are the biggest energy user having more impact than any other nation. Global warming is real, whether or not we agree about the causes, or the role of CO2. Telling everyone else to go screw themselves was not in our own best interests--despite what the short term thinkers believe.

So lets blame George Bush for not signing a treaty that Congress would never ratify in the first place. Anyone remember another treaty that was signed by a President but never ratified.

Kyoto does not address one of the biggest threats - the cut and slash of Rain Forests - but lets just blame the United States because its easier.

Yea right.