The Australian: Credit where it's due (Thank you USA)

[Henry]

I rarely post articles, but this one I thought people of any political stripe would appreciate.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23693121-7583,00.html

Credit where it's due

Janet Albrechtsen

May 14, 2008

THERE is a certain familiarity to the concomitant series of actions and reactions when disaster strikes in the world. The US stands ready, willing and able to offer assistance. It is often the first country to send in millions of dollars, navy strike groups loaded with food and medical supplies, and transport planes, helicopters and floating hospitals to help those devastated by natural disaster.

Then, just as swift and with equal predictability, those wedded to the Great Satan view of the US begin to carp, drawing on a potent mixture of cynicism and conspiracy theories to criticise the last remaining superpower. When the US keeps doing so much of the heavy lifting to alleviate suffering, you'd figure that the anti-Americans might eventually revise their view of the US. But they never do. And coming under constant attack even when helping others, you'd figure that Americans would eventually draw the curtains on world crises. But they haven't. At least not yet.

So it was last week. The US stood ready to help the cyclone-ravaged Burmese people. It did not matter that Burma's ruling junta was no friend of the Americans. With more than 100,000 people feared dead and many more hundreds of thousands left destitute, US Air Force cargo planes loaded with supplies and personnel started arriving in nearby Thailand to begin humanitarian operations in Burma.

Click on the link for the rest of the article

[SkinsHokieFan]

Bravo. Very well written article

[PleaseBlitz]

Thanks for posting that Henry.

[Boots]

Good article.

I'd like to know how others outside of this country are responding to it.

[stevenaa]

Nice......

[headexplode]

We don't help to get credit (because we rarely do). We help because we can, and it's right. It's nice to read a positive article about the United States every once in a while.

(It certainly beats another race or god thread.)

[jpillian]

Just forwarded that to my friends and family (like all the distro junkies that I complain about ).

[Thiebear]

You would think...

[drums and skins]

Right back at ya, Australia.

God bless Australia, too.

[mjah]

That's a good article.

Our leadership makes really good and really bad decisions at times, but fundamentally we're a nation of giving people. While some will be quick to say we give more to ourselves than to anyone else, you'd be hard pressed to find such a critic whose own people can claim the same philanthropy as ours.

[TuckahoeSkin]

Great article. This needs to be bumped to the top at least once a month.

[headexplode]

Great article. This needs to be bumped to the top at least once a month.

It will languish away because it just isn't sexy enough. There are no hot girls in skimpy bikins to keep people interested.

Oh, wait, nevermind . . .

Right back at ya, Australia.

God bless Australia, too.

This could be a sticky-worthy thread, as it is probably one of the only, if not only, non-partisan political thread ever posted in the Tailgate.

(For now.)

[Bang]

Hits the nail pretty much right on the head.

~Bang