Money matters

A reader complains that I haven't acknowledged your raising the offer of US aid in the Asian disaster to $350 million. Duly noted, with appreciation. I hadn't figured you for a good old Texas poker player, Bush--if your religion allows this artful pleasure--watching the pot and upping the ante as appropriate. It must have been a bit galling to see little Japan raise you by another $150 million within hours of your latest offer. Still, with the military costs involved in addition to the commitment of money, it would be churlish not to acknowledge that the U.S. is now beginning to pull its weight.

And yet, even with this acknowledgment, I admit that I persist in unfavorably comparing this $350 million to what it costs us to pursue your ill-planned, poorly-conducted war in Iraq (for a sobering assessment, watch the cost counter mount by the second; and to your grandiose announcement in 2002 of a Millennium Challenge account to give African countries development assistance of up to $5 billion a year. According to a recent NY Times editorial, the account "has yet to disburse a single dollar." Oh, and how about all that money promised to New York City after 9/11? Did that ever materialize? I heard a lot of it went missing...

I was disturbed, too, by your Powell's appearance on this morning's Face the Nation, in which he claimed that, in the first days following the disaster, your administration was simply "concerned," believing there to be no more than about 10,000 victims. Excuse me, Bush, I don't believe there could have been a single person watching the developing news who could have entertained such a low assessment: it was clear from the start that the problem was infinitely greater than the one that Powell sought to describe.

Bottom line: in my perhaps misguided liberal view, the silver lining to this dreadful catastrophe is to offer the world a whole new paradigm, the opportunity for a collective change in consciousness about how we can live together on this increasingly small and overpopulated planet. It's a revelation to see so many nations rushing to contribute to the aid of those in need. Help might have been slow in coming, but it's surely on its way, and the much-scorned United Nations has the opportunity, now, to demonstrate its value and its clout.

Let's not go this one alone, Bush. Let's begin to see the value of followership as a part of leadership. I caught a snatch from one of the rabid right-wing radio talk shows just a couple of days ago, with the host ranting on about how it would be a cold day in hell before the U.S. should work with the U.N. again. I say, let's give it a try. Let's for once use our power and the undoubted goodness of our heart in the context of the collective power of the world's nations. Let's see how it works for us to be one among many, instead of The One.