I suppose Brownie may think he knows best. However, unless a person is IN office and (i.e., in the trenches), how can a lay-person person make any kind of judgment call on such a complex decision like accepting foreign aid? There are many economic and foreign-US relation issues to deal with when accepting aid from a Middle Eastern country, no matter how friendly any ally they might be! Wow, such negative talk is so easy to spout out. Playing a blame game will almost always amount to nothing. Why not question the circumstances surrounding the decision before snapping out an opinion smacking of partisan liberalism garbage? I\’m sure Bush and the US powers that be, including RICE didn\’t make this decision willy-nilly just to stir up some dumb partisan debate with the Democrats and Monday morning quarterbacks like Brownie! I wish more people would think carefully before rendering an opinion about our government these days. It seems it is so much easier for some to remain simple-minded and criticize. The finer points of foreign policy are so complex and convoluted. We see only a small ingredient or two of the whole US discretionary pie. Since there are so many factors and elements to consider before a decision like this is made I suppose the easy way out is to make fun, criticize, condemn and complain while forgetting about your own yard which may need attention. However, since mulching and cleaning a yard requires energy and some intuitive thinking, I guess playing a blame game is the non-productive activity of choice for some.
please keep in mind the amounts offered were less than 1% of what the government has paid themselves. It\’s easy to call names and throw stone, but sorry, the $50 mill of oil donation offer from Kuwait was going to do nothing to stabilize gas prices; get a grip on reality, please.
What the article does not explain is what happened to all offers. Some were routed to agencies better suited to handle. Some were unusable (greek cruiseliners). Some were dropped or refused, but your asking government to do something it\’s not accustomed to: accept donations. Let\’s face it, some were more suitable than others. In a perfect world, we couldn\’t collected every last cent and used it to provide assistance, but even the alleged aid would amount to less than 1 cent on the dollar compared to what has been expended.
Keep in mind government has never been the most efficient method of getting help to those in need. The charitable organizations were much more experienced and efficient in getting the food, goods, and housing help to those in need. Look no further than the rampant fraud in the government handouts.
Before anyone turns this into a pro-Bush opinion, it\’s just an obvservation that government is not an efficient mechanism for transferring wealth, nor assistance.
Thank you RI Attorney and Chad for the voices of reason.
This article sure brought out the loonies.
Yes we should have taken more money to \”keep\” the people who continue not to pick up responsibility for themselves. Especially the drug peddlers and users.
Bad enough we have such a sad system that generations live off of taxpayers\’, but now we need to get money from other governements to put them up.
The people that worked for a living and had insurance, called responsible by the way, have moved on. The non workers or freeloaders should have some money from Kuwait (HA!)along with the extended/eternal housing.
The only thing holding things up is the pathetic local politicies who cannot come up with a game plan to start rebuilding the infrastructure of New Orleans. They\’re too tied up into political partisianship. They want the welfare state returned because they vote almost solidly for the Democrats.
You can sign me disgusted with the handout mentality that continues to grow with each generation. Hildabeast Clinton will make them all happy if she is elected because she does believe in socialism.
Ok RI Attorney, so assuming we turn down the Kuwaiti oil and aid: How about the aid from the U.K., Canada, and Italy? Where is the harm in accepting aid from them? They\’re our allies and we\’ve helped them out in the past. (WWII comes to mind) Italy sent medical supplies that spoiled because we didn\’t use them. But I guess there was no need for medical supplies right? Everything was hunky dory.
Lets see- we are all armchair QB\’s with no insight about how gov\’t really works?
A war going onto the 5th year with no end in sight, offer of aid to American\’s in need by foreign countries that we helped in the past yet we don\’t understand that there is more to be understood.
How about being a bunch of registered voters & tax payers that get upset when we read an article that shows our so called elected leader(?) turned down help when our gov\’t didn\’t help.
As far as the cruise ship, it only takes about 4-6 days to get here from Greece. How long did the gov\’t pay for temp housing? I guess not everyone checked that fact out. I have taken over 10 cruises myself.
As insurance professional and tax payors we have every right to get upset when we hear that countries we have helped in the past offers US help and our great leaders just do not act to use such help.
Maybe I forgot but wan\’t it Kuait that Geo. Bush Sr. sent armed U.S. forces to protect their country from Sadaam? Opps I guess some other people who posted on this site forgot about that one too.
So to those who say that we are just armchair QB\’s and acted too fast to post our opinion just remember it is every American\’s right voice their opinion. Althoough you may feel that those opinions are not correct, there many who think YOUR opinion is wrong. The real question would be whose is actually correct and would have helped many American\’s that needed help, help from anywhere.
no one is challenging your right to your opinion; typical liberal dramadrivel when someone has a reasoned point in opposite of yours, it\’s because the \’bad guys\’ are trying to keep you from voicing your opinion…great point bringing up Kuwait and 1991…
your absolutely right…you have a right to your opinion, even a wrong opinion, but it\’s your right…sorry if the world doesn\’t please you, but it doesn\’t function perfectly…sometimes it rains when we don\’t want it to, sometimes the people we vote for lose, or worse yet, disappoint the people who supported them. But thru it all, we still retain the right to an opinion-I haven\’t seen anyone trying to take that from you. Why the defensive lashout? If you want to get mad, consider the brains who located a city, and later a large metro area, below sea level? Probably a master plan to drown Democrats, eh?
and yes…I defend your right to be wrong; heck, I even defend your right to open your eyes and note the color of the sky if you like. Good luck!
The orignal comment was geared more to RIAttorney than you. He did mistate the amount of aid that Kuwait did offer.
We do both agree that we have a right to our opinion but as some people did post we do not have the right to pass judgement on our elected officials as we are not in their chair.
It appears he or she forgot that we actually have one very loud and firm say. That say comes every election day. I hope he or she does not ever run for office for the voice of the people can be very thunderous on that Tuesday in November and it can shatter a policticians world when they get voted out of their job because the people did not like what they did while in that job.
So, what you\’re saying is there are \”strings\” attached whenever one country wants to render aid to another in need. OK – then if that\’s true, wouldn\’t this be payback to the U.S. from all the times we\’ve come to the aid for others?
Additionally, what you are saying is the U.S. chose not to help those in need down in New Orleans because it would interfere somehow in this massive web of foreign politics.
Sorry, I don\’t buy it. What I do buy, is the government has become so massively bogged down with beaurocratic red-tape that has created \”gross inefficiency\” to the point that it can\’t even accept foreign aid \”at all\”. It\’s not that difficult. Countries do it ALL THE TIME!! EVERY YEAR!! Send the money, send the supplies, send the people. It\’s SIMPLE!!
No surprise to see the Washington Compost running yet another liberal mouth-piece article to blame all the misfortunes in the aftermath of a NATURAL DISASTER on the government. Hopefully, most of those who read this article will realize that the topic has been sensationalized and based upon fragmented data and research by a liberal funded think tank. While on the surface of it, our government may have turned down foreign aid, accepting foreign aid and support is a diplomatic function. With only sound bites and clips of quotes from public officials, and maybe I am just reaching here, but I think there may be a little more to this story?
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I suppose Brownie may think he knows best. However, unless a person is IN office and (i.e., in the trenches), how can a lay-person person make any kind of judgment call on such a complex decision like accepting foreign aid? There are many economic and foreign-US relation issues to deal with when accepting aid from a Middle Eastern country, no matter how friendly any ally they might be! Wow, such negative talk is so easy to spout out. Playing a blame game will almost always amount to nothing. Why not question the circumstances surrounding the decision before snapping out an opinion smacking of partisan liberalism garbage? I\’m sure Bush and the US powers that be, including RICE didn\’t make this decision willy-nilly just to stir up some dumb partisan debate with the Democrats and Monday morning quarterbacks like Brownie! I wish more people would think carefully before rendering an opinion about our government these days. It seems it is so much easier for some to remain simple-minded and criticize. The finer points of foreign policy are so complex and convoluted. We see only a small ingredient or two of the whole US discretionary pie. Since there are so many factors and elements to consider before a decision like this is made I suppose the easy way out is to make fun, criticize, condemn and complain while forgetting about your own yard which may need attention. However, since mulching and cleaning a yard requires energy and some intuitive thinking, I guess playing a blame game is the non-productive activity of choice for some.
please keep in mind the amounts offered were less than 1% of what the government has paid themselves. It\’s easy to call names and throw stone, but sorry, the $50 mill of oil donation offer from Kuwait was going to do nothing to stabilize gas prices; get a grip on reality, please.
What the article does not explain is what happened to all offers. Some were routed to agencies better suited to handle. Some were unusable (greek cruiseliners). Some were dropped or refused, but your asking government to do something it\’s not accustomed to: accept donations. Let\’s face it, some were more suitable than others. In a perfect world, we couldn\’t collected every last cent and used it to provide assistance, but even the alleged aid would amount to less than 1 cent on the dollar compared to what has been expended.
Keep in mind government has never been the most efficient method of getting help to those in need. The charitable organizations were much more experienced and efficient in getting the food, goods, and housing help to those in need. Look no further than the rampant fraud in the government handouts.
Before anyone turns this into a pro-Bush opinion, it\’s just an obvservation that government is not an efficient mechanism for transferring wealth, nor assistance.
Thank you RI Attorney and Chad for the voices of reason.
This article sure brought out the loonies.
Yes we should have taken more money to \”keep\” the people who continue not to pick up responsibility for themselves. Especially the drug peddlers and users.
Bad enough we have such a sad system that generations live off of taxpayers\’, but now we need to get money from other governements to put them up.
The people that worked for a living and had insurance, called responsible by the way, have moved on. The non workers or freeloaders should have some money from Kuwait (HA!)along with the extended/eternal housing.
The only thing holding things up is the pathetic local politicies who cannot come up with a game plan to start rebuilding the infrastructure of New Orleans. They\’re too tied up into political partisianship. They want the welfare state returned because they vote almost solidly for the Democrats.
You can sign me disgusted with the handout mentality that continues to grow with each generation. Hildabeast Clinton will make them all happy if she is elected because she does believe in socialism.
Ok RI Attorney, so assuming we turn down the Kuwaiti oil and aid: How about the aid from the U.K., Canada, and Italy? Where is the harm in accepting aid from them? They\’re our allies and we\’ve helped them out in the past. (WWII comes to mind) Italy sent medical supplies that spoiled because we didn\’t use them. But I guess there was no need for medical supplies right? Everything was hunky dory.
Lets see- we are all armchair QB\’s with no insight about how gov\’t really works?
A war going onto the 5th year with no end in sight, offer of aid to American\’s in need by foreign countries that we helped in the past yet we don\’t understand that there is more to be understood.
How about being a bunch of registered voters & tax payers that get upset when we read an article that shows our so called elected leader(?) turned down help when our gov\’t didn\’t help.
As far as the cruise ship, it only takes about 4-6 days to get here from Greece. How long did the gov\’t pay for temp housing? I guess not everyone checked that fact out. I have taken over 10 cruises myself.
As insurance professional and tax payors we have every right to get upset when we hear that countries we have helped in the past offers US help and our great leaders just do not act to use such help.
Maybe I forgot but wan\’t it Kuait that Geo. Bush Sr. sent armed U.S. forces to protect their country from Sadaam? Opps I guess some other people who posted on this site forgot about that one too.
So to those who say that we are just armchair QB\’s and acted too fast to post our opinion just remember it is every American\’s right voice their opinion. Althoough you may feel that those opinions are not correct, there many who think YOUR opinion is wrong. The real question would be whose is actually correct and would have helped many American\’s that needed help, help from anywhere.
no one is challenging your right to your opinion; typical liberal dramadrivel when someone has a reasoned point in opposite of yours, it\’s because the \’bad guys\’ are trying to keep you from voicing your opinion…great point bringing up Kuwait and 1991…
your absolutely right…you have a right to your opinion, even a wrong opinion, but it\’s your right…sorry if the world doesn\’t please you, but it doesn\’t function perfectly…sometimes it rains when we don\’t want it to, sometimes the people we vote for lose, or worse yet, disappoint the people who supported them. But thru it all, we still retain the right to an opinion-I haven\’t seen anyone trying to take that from you. Why the defensive lashout? If you want to get mad, consider the brains who located a city, and later a large metro area, below sea level? Probably a master plan to drown Democrats, eh?
and yes…I defend your right to be wrong; heck, I even defend your right to open your eyes and note the color of the sky if you like. Good luck!
Thank God Chad and RI Attorney are not running this country and hopefully will not run for office.
The orignal comment was geared more to RIAttorney than you. He did mistate the amount of aid that Kuwait did offer.
We do both agree that we have a right to our opinion but as some people did post we do not have the right to pass judgement on our elected officials as we are not in their chair.
It appears he or she forgot that we actually have one very loud and firm say. That say comes every election day. I hope he or she does not ever run for office for the voice of the people can be very thunderous on that Tuesday in November and it can shatter a policticians world when they get voted out of their job because the people did not like what they did while in that job.
Now taht can be a rude awakening.
So, what you\’re saying is there are \”strings\” attached whenever one country wants to render aid to another in need. OK – then if that\’s true, wouldn\’t this be payback to the U.S. from all the times we\’ve come to the aid for others?
Additionally, what you are saying is the U.S. chose not to help those in need down in New Orleans because it would interfere somehow in this massive web of foreign politics.
Sorry, I don\’t buy it. What I do buy, is the government has become so massively bogged down with beaurocratic red-tape that has created \”gross inefficiency\” to the point that it can\’t even accept foreign aid \”at all\”. It\’s not that difficult. Countries do it ALL THE TIME!! EVERY YEAR!! Send the money, send the supplies, send the people. It\’s SIMPLE!!
No surprise to see the Washington Compost running yet another liberal mouth-piece article to blame all the misfortunes in the aftermath of a NATURAL DISASTER on the government. Hopefully, most of those who read this article will realize that the topic has been sensationalized and based upon fragmented data and research by a liberal funded think tank. While on the surface of it, our government may have turned down foreign aid, accepting foreign aid and support is a diplomatic function. With only sound bites and clips of quotes from public officials, and maybe I am just reaching here, but I think there may be a little more to this story?