I Am Humbled

Seems the U.S. is always willing to help other countries in times of need. We all know that. I'm proud that we're able to and that we do it.

What humbles me is the assistance offered by so many other countries. Some who maybe should not really be offering up assistance, due to the fact that they have so little in the first place.
Some who are offering because they have their own agenda, such as removing embargoes or looking for a future debt to collect.

Too bad there are so many politics involved with those sort of deals, but that's the way it goes.

But nevertheless, I appreciate the offerings and I'm sure, we'll be returning the favor, if it isn't already a favor returned by them. As of 9/7/2005, the U.S. has been offered nearly $1 billion in assistance from some 95 countries.

Here's a list I scrounged up to start with. But it is indeed a short list.

• Afghanistan: pledged $100,000
• Bangladesh: pledged $1 million and offered to send specialist rescuers
• Thailand: offered 60 doctors and nurses and a shipment of rice
• Sri Lanka: a $25,000 donation to the American Red Cross
• Pakistan: offered doctors and paramedics
• Honduras: has offered 135 flooding and sanitation experts
• Peru: has offered to send a medical team of up to 100 members
• Mexico: a ship loaded with eight all-terrain rescue vehicles, seven amphibious cargo vehicles, a mobile hospital, two rescue helicopters, drinking water, mobile kitchens
• Cuba: offered 1,100 doctors
• Venezuela: offered 1 million barrels of gasoline, $5 million in cash and more than 50 tons of canned food and water. (I wonder what that moron Pat Roberts has t say about that?)
• New Zealand: promised $1.4 million in aid and offered to send urban search and rescue specialists and a victim identification team
• Australia: promised 10 million Australian dollars
  
• Japan: pledged $1 million, tents, blankets, generators and portable water tanks
• Singapore: sent a fourth military helicopter and 45 airmen
• Italy: tents and cots and baby food
• Canada, Belgium, and Norway: have offered diving teams
• Greece: offered two cruise ships
• Uruguay: offered two tons of powdered milk
• Saudi Arabia: says it can increase oil production to cover shortfalls
• Germany: offered high-speed pumps
• Holland: offered experts on levee reconstruction
• India: presented a $5 million check to the American Red Cross
• China: delivered a planeload of tents and generators
• Albania: pledged nearly 240,000 euros and offered to send a group of doctors and nurses
• Kosovo: 400,000 euros
• New Delhi: offered military medics and water purification equipment
• Taiwan: offered $2 million
• South Korea: pledged $30 million, 40 rescue workers and 100 tons of goods - including blankets, diapers, crutches, bunk beds and wheelchairs
• Britain: started sending some 500,000 military ration packs
• Russia: an estimated $760,000 worth of humanitarian aid including 121 tents, 4,000 blankets and 10,000 food packages
• Pakistan: offered doctors and paramedics.
  
• Peru: offered to send up to a 100-member medical team
• United Arab Emirates: tents, clothing, food and other aid
• Iran, Syria and North Korea offered to help rescue efforts
  

Of course, the al-Qaida in Iraq called the devastation across the U.S. Gulf Coast region God's retribution on America. And to that, we can pretty much say "Go fuck yourself, you backward, woman hating, cock sucking, camel fucking, towel headed, shit eating sperm burpers. Go blow yourselves to hell."

To every one else, I say "Thank you."