International Assistance?

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Anonymous

Have you ever noticed that America is always expected to help out other countries when tradegy strikes?

So, where are those other countries now? Has anyone heard of any assistance coming from anywhere?
 
This idea was done on the "joke caller"-styled Phil Hendrie show after the Indonesia tsunami and California mudslides. We are the rich kid on the block and do an amazing job taking care of our own. Maybe Norway and Switzerland could send aid though.

Tim
 
This should be an interesting thread. For all the good America has done over all the years past, I get the impression most countries hope we just get destroyed by a giant meteorite or something. I'll be surprised if we get much in the way of true sympathy except perhaps for the British and Australians.
 
Let's PLEASE not turn this in to a political thread. If you feel that your own comments are more political than anything else, PLEASE refrain from posting. Start a blog or something if you really need to get it off your chest!

Instead of arguing your opinion regarding this topic, how about discussing what other countries have "pledged"...
 
ABC Radio said something that Japan would loan the USA some of there oil reserves, but really what could any other counrty do to help us? Besides sending money to the Red Cross or something like that.
 
I don't know what the deal is with Chavez's statements. If he is serious, it is a 180 from his normal stance.
I am not surprised that no foreign countries are jumping to the aid of the United States. Like Tim mentioned, we are considered the rich kid and we can help ourselves. IMO the gesture of at least offering would be a welcome change. Everybody around the world expects the U.S. to bail them out when they get in trouble and we almost always step up and do it. It has become so normal for us to help with problems around the world that we are now expected to help and are efforts are totally taken for granted. I remember hearing several countries and officials at the UN complaining about how the US was spending the 15 billion dollars we contributed to fighting aids in Africa. That is more than the rest of the world combined gave to fight aids in Africa, yet all some people can do is complain about how we are spending the money. The same thing happened with tsunami relief. Two days after it happend there were outcries all around the world because the US apparently wasn't doing enough.
Despite the fact that the US provides a security umbrella for dozens of countries around the world and we donate massive amounts of economic aid, we are still the country everyone loves to hate. I just don't get it.
 
For what it's worth - I am a Canadian and I have been glued to CNN (which I usually can't stand) and of course the Stormtrack forum, since Sunday evening. I am floored by the coverage I have seen and I have shed more than a few tears over the past few days. I have only experienced the briefest touch of a hurricane personally in Miami during Dennis and I can't begin to imagine what it would be like to experience something on the scale of Katrina.
I plan on donating to the Red Cross. I am educating my friends and coworkers on the devastation of the hurricane. I am a proud Canadian with mixed feelings about the United States, but I am a human being who recognizes that human suffering has no political boundaries.

Take good care,
Anastasia
 
Who knows why the rest of the world dislikes the US....who cares! The US can manage its own disasters without needing any foreign help.

If a country was to state they are willing to help, they would expect ten times as much as they offered from the US in return. So what is the point....
 
This is the reality of our position in the world as the most powerful and wealthy nation on the planet. We have the resources to handle this.

These nations where people are living on the equivalent of 10 cents a day can't very well gather up some goats and send them over. Let's keep our heads here. :roll:
 
Who knows why the rest of the world dislikes the US....who cares! The US can manage its own disasters without needing any foreign help.

If a country was to state they are willing to help, they would expect ten times as much as they offered from the US in return. So what is the point....
Click to expand...

Because sometimes helping people is just the right thing to do.
 
Sorry im very opinionated on the subject with alot of military vets in my family. NOBODY is even offering. We have helped liberate parts of the planet. NOBODY is offering disaster relief? That REALLY irratates me. We lost thousands & thousands to help other countries yet NOBODY offeres disaster relief. The hell with them then, raid the radical islamic countries turn their deserts to glass & keep their freakin oil for us. sounds harsh but hey, do they actually care about us???? Times like this I say no. Just an opinion from a person who has lost loved ones HELPING others.
 
Just because there hasn't been mass outpourings of help in the news media yet, doesn't mean there hasn't been help offered. Perhaps they are waiting for the big picture to become known before they can offer their specialties. Perhaps they are doing small things behind the scenes (medical personnel, utility workers, etc.). Kuwait has helped out in the past during hurricanes, Australia has sent firefighters several times to the West, and Canada has helped during such instances as 9/11 and the New England blackout of a few years ago, as well as during blizzards.

So, while there may not be a huge offering like for tsunami relief (which was an entirely different animal), I feel confident that our fellow neighbors will be helping as much as they can.
 
The most significant aid most countries could offer us is to simply quit sucking us dry.

I'd quickly and happily settle for that.
 
NOBODY is even offering. We have helped liberate parts of the planet. NOBODY is offering disaster relief? That REALLY irritates me. We lost thousands & thousands to help other countries yet NOBODY offeres disaster relief. The hell with them then, raid the radical islamic countries turn their deserts to glass & keep their freakin oil for us. sounds harsh but hey, do they actually care about us???? Times like this I say no. Just an opinion from a person who has lost loved ones HELPING others.
Click to expand...

Get a grip, Kevin. The reason the United States often steps in to assist others when disaster strikes is because we have the financial and logistical resources to do so. What sort of disaster relief to expect the rest of the world to offer at this point?
 
LOL Me get a grip.???? Yes im actually laughing on that!!Is France soooo poor, right? how about the rediculously rich arab countries? Cmon do some history lessons. Im not talking Somialia here, These countries that we all know & love DONT CARE like the us cares for others bottom line. When YOUR gas is 4 bucks a pop, then see how the wealthy nations sit back & watch the US carnage & light cigars with 100 bills. PLENTY of people that could AT LEAST muster some boots on the ground. Deep down ya know its truth.....
 
Jeff made the request, and it has been ignored...so, once again I will make it. Please do not turn this into a flame casting, foreign leader bashing, political thread. If the thread continues to go in this direction, it will be locked.

Thank You.
 
I'd like to think we don't need outside help. We're supposed to be the best country in the world in terms of technology an support.

We help others because we're the big kid on the block... We have plenty plenty of people to help with recovery.. we don't need others coming in.

BTW: In every other country, gas costs more than in the US.

We're bringing this sort of stuff on ourselves with 10mpg guzzlin SUVS etc.

Aaron
 
Kevin, I have a B.A. degree in Political Science and International Relations. I know my way around this subject. I don't need your history lessons.

The fact of that matter is, you're using this tragedy to make a political point. Nothing more. Per moderator requests, I'll leave it at that.
 
Appologise for flame. Im not using thread for anything. Just fact thats all. Jeff, true you may not need my history lessons but its the way it is, thats not taught in books. Anyway, Some assistance offers from other countries would be appreciated. I wish I had some more vacation days to help in recovery/rescue, but in short term im giving blood this afternoon & wife & I have been cleanin our closets to send some stuff to those people. We might not have much but we are giving what we can. That is my point, nothing more. Internationally, govt's can give something..... Now all we can do is pray the ones trapped by some sort of miracle can be found.
 
On the radio this morning I heard some talk show hosts trying to whip up hostility against foreign countries for not offering aid, and against "Hollywood liberals" for not already organizing relief efforts like they have in other crises.

I'm not going to debate their points. Instead I hope everybody can turn off the radio for a moment and consider if what we really need right now is to find more reasons to be angry, or to blame some group, or to turn against the "other half" of the country and try and gain some personal satisfaction by attacking other Americans right when we need to pull together the most. Hate isn't going to solve these problems.

If you hear a talking head or radio host--no matter what his or her political orientation--trying to make you angry at other human beings right now, don't you have to question if that person's agenda is really the best thing for the country? Is this the way we're going to get through some of the most difficult decisions in our nation's history, like what to do with a million refugees? This is the time to tell the sensationalist hate-mongers to shut up and find ways to help, not divide us against each other.
 
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