Why does the US need our money?

[Duty Honor Country]

I am interested to hear the views of forum members who live in countries that are aiding the US.

Why does the US need our money?

The Red Cross is appealing for people overseas to contribute money to its Hurricane Katrina Appeal. But why does the world's richest nation need handouts?

The world's only superpower has been forced to turn to aid agencies to speed up the humanitarian effort in the wake of Katrina.

Seemingly unable to draw on its wealth at short notice to immediately respond to the disaster, charities in other countries, such as the British Red Cross, are now launching appeals to raise money.

In addition half a million military ration packs worth an estimated £3m have been flown out from the UK and more are expected to follow.

The public in many countries are accustomed to providing aid to poverty stricken developing nations, but the need to provide assistance to the most opulent country in the world may leave many perplexed.

Sympathy

It is not a position the US is used to being in either. President George W Bush seemed to initially dismiss suggestions of receiving foreign assistance.

"I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we haven't asked for it," he said. "I do expect a lot of sympathy, and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country is going to rise up and take care of it.''

Later, US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said "no offers of assistance will be refused''.

The gross national income of the US is $37,870 per capita, according to the World Bank. It is just $810 for tsunami-hit Indonesia and $200 for poverty-stricken Niger.

And, national wealth aside, Americans have a strong track record of generosity concerning disasters on their own soil. They gave $2bn following the 11 September attacks.

'Unprecedented'

The British Red Cross says the appeal is about getting money quickly to speed up the aid effort, but admits it does raise questions about measures the US Government has in place to deal with large-scale domestic disasters...

READ MORE

 

[Rich]

I think it is important that countries do offer aid, in whatever form appropriate, to any country that is effected by a natural or man-made disaster. It would be a comfort to most people to know that regardless of where disaster struck, the rest of the world community wil give aid and assistance - regardless if that disaster ccurs in a 3rd world country or on the wealthiest nation on earth.

If we don't at least offer aid, then we start down the track of "which people deserve aid and which people don't" - that's not really healthy debate.

 

[Italian Guy]

What Rich said, and I also think that collecting private funds is much a longer process than appealing to International Institutions like the Red Cross. In general, though, too many Countries are having the sorta "revenge" attitude, like -oh look who's in need now ah ah now it's me looking down on you and you will have to thank ME now and oh oh it must be humiliating for you ah ah the big rich needs our money-
Anyways the US should definitely provide itself with a national ready intervention agency, like the one that we have here, called Protezione Civile.

 

[WARmachine88]

just look at U.S' government's messed up bugdet and its costly war in Iraq.

 

[Marinerhodes]

just look at U.S' government's messed up bugdet and its costly war in Iraq.

Do you live in a glass house? I sure hope not.

 

[WARmachine88]

just look at U.S' government's messed up bugdet and its costly war in Iraq.

Do you live in a glass house? I sure hope not.

so you think U.S government can pay for the rebuilding itself even though they are so in debt and have to pay for the expensive war in iraq..

 

[Marinerhodes]

just look at U.S' government's messed up bugdet and its costly war in Iraq.

Do you live in a glass house? I sure hope not.

so you think U.S government can pay for the rebuilding itself even though they are so in debt and have to pay for the expensive war in iraq..

Now you are putting words in my mouth. If you choose to bash on something then back it up with fact. Don't throw out comments like that and not expect a like response.

 

[Rabs]

yes yes i do.

 

[Redneck]

WARmachine88, stay on topic and do not start flame wars on these forums, the subject is foreign aid for disaster relief, not what your opinion of either the current war in Iraq or the United States economy are, especially without any thought or references put into your posts. Behave in a mature manner on these forums or find another place to spend your time.

 

[WARmachine88]

just look at U.S' government's messed up bugdet and its costly war in Iraq.

Do you live in a glass house? I sure hope not.

so you think U.S government can pay for the rebuilding itself even though they are so in debt and have to pay for the expensive war in iraq..

Now you are putting words in my mouth. If you choose to bash on something then back it up with fact. Don't throw out comments like that and not expect a like response.

couple fact

1. U.S is the richest nation in the world.
2. Suddenly, U.S needs aids while usually it is U.S supporting other nations.

an explaination for that:

U.S government budget is in a bad shape and government is in huge debt and every citizen is paying interest for the money the government has borrowed.
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
The government just cannot afford the huge rebuilding money with such a deficit and costly war going on.

 

[chewie_nz]

the world community needs to come forward in natural disaters of this magnitude, they did for the boxing day tsunami, and they have in NO as well.

it has nothing to do with wether the US is rich or not....it has even less to do with the war on terror... friends help each other when needed...even if they dont agree on everything.

this shouldn't be about politic as much as human suffering, the more relief, SAR personel and other forms of help that the world can provide...surely the better result for those displaced.

i never understood the "we dont need any help" attitude from both indonesia and the US...surely a better answer would be "we dont THINK we need any help..." there is no shame in it.


thoughts?

 

[Charge 7]

Anyways the US should definitely provide itself with a national ready intervention agency, like the one that we have here, called Protezione Civile.

We have one. It's called FEMA.

I think that nobody was prepared for the scale of this and quite frankly, I don't think that cuts the mustard. Somebody or some group will feel the wrath of those who've suffered this I'm sure. Where the axe will fall is yet to be seen though. Hopefully, action will be just and correct.

 

[mmarsh]

Charge 7

We have one. It's called FEMA.

Ironically, A few weeks ago Paul Krugman wrote an article in the NY Times about the fact the the past 3 heads of FEMA (all Bush appointees, although Clinton get some blame too) had been cutting back on the emergency response units to national disasters and what sort effect this would have in a crisis situation. Well Mr Krugman, I think we got our answer.

Its really hard to image how FEMA screwed this up. this wasnt as unperdictable as 9/11. They knew for years that the Levee system was a risk, they even had scenarios from 1996-1997 in discussing such a possibility. They knew the system couldnt withstand a catagory 4 (it had already been rebuilt once before) and they also knew that given the location of NO that this scenario was a possibility.

The New Orleans Times-Payanune recent wrote in its editorial that every FEMA agent should be fired, in particular the director Michael Brown. I completely agree.

 

[sunb!]

Historical bonds - the US founded most of the Norwegian Airforce, Army and some parts of the navy during the 1950s and 1960s through the NATO Infrastructure Programme - so it is right to help the US out.

America and Norway have always been good trading partners and NATO allies so speaking on my own behalf the aid should be higher.

 

[Damien435]

Here is my understanding about how the laws in America work concerning natural disasters which require Federal assistance.

There is a chain of command which starts at the country level and ends at the National level (FEMA). But the people at the bottom must ask those directly above for assistance, so the county/parish must first evaluate the damage and declare an emergency, the state must then also makes it own evaluation and request federal assistance, finally it gets to FEMA who makes their own evaluation and acts accordingly. It is not perfect but it is what, according to my understanding of the laws, we have. The reasoning, to the best of my knowledge, is that the government does not want to commit resources to help in an area where assistance is un-needed. If I remember correctly the Hurricane hit Sunday, the following Monday I heard that 10,000+ National Guardsmen were being sent to Louisiana, the tuesday afterwords 40,000+ guardsmen were being sent to the state. Also, looting was a major problem and rescuers were being fired upon by people who thought..... I don't know what the **** they were thinking, they could not go into some of the hardest hit parts of the city and the National Guard had to go through and clean those people out one by one. How bad this truly was I do not know and to be honest with you I think I am coming from a part of the county that leaves me unable to truly undstand what these people are going though, to me it just seems like common sense that if you are in a city that is below sea level and a hurricane is coming you need to get the hell out. I am hesitant to say that FEMA mis-managed the situation because short of sending in the Marines with their Helicopters and Amphibious Landing Crafts to take people out of the city I don't know how they could have done a whole lot better. Obviously some mistakes were made, hearing the director of FEMA say almost a week later that they just found out people were inside the convention center in New Orleans is a little disturbing.

As for foreign aid, as far as I know the only aid that was requested was help in moving oil from port to port since something like 50% of our nation's supply of oil came through New Orleans, foreign ships were allowed to transport oil from American port to American port but other than that I don't think any other substantial requests were made. Does the US need aid? I like to think not, if India can refuse foreign aid so can the US, but to me that is like yelling at a person for offering a kind word or two when you are feeling down. It is turning down an offer of goodwill and friendship, to simplify things even more it is just plain rude, in my opinion. I think other nations offering aid to the US just proves that we are still friends after all, regardless of our new foreign policy, which is not all that radical in terms of world history, but is a change from 230 years of American foreign policy.