Who Gives A Rat's Ass About the Tsunami?

Republican isolationism and the tsunami.

Plus, at Daily Kos, the effect on the War on Terror:

[A] strong initial response would've been PR gold and shown the world that the US's first impulse was to help, not to bomb. Sadly, Bush couldn't make that case because quite simply, it wasn't true. His first impulse is war, and he couldn't get his ass off his ranch when the time came to render aid to a people in need.

This is a battle of perceptions. Australia has pledged near a billion dollars, Japan $500 million -- both nations far smaller than the US. True, the tsunami hit in their backyard, thus they have a moral imperitive to act above and beyond what nations far away provide. And Australia has an interest in preventing a new wave of illegal immigration from desperate survivers.

But as a matter of perception, the largest, richest nation in the world isn't topping the list of donor nations, and has only contributed the amount of money spent in less than two days of Iraq operations.

In a perfect world, Bush -- not Clinton -- would've provided the initial US respone. He would've acted decisively, strongly, with a non-insulting aid pledge (remember $15 million?). He would've flown straight to DC, or better yet, to Asia to survey the damage himself.

THEN, we could've talked about scoring a solid victory on the war on terror. Instead, Bush reinforced stereotypes of a callous, war-hungry nation, and no amount of additional aid will change matters at this point. The damage has been done.