Tsunami aid and this Administration

Well many others have written about how horrible the tsunami disaster has been. I have nothing really to add but will give a few links to other places where you can donate. Go here or here to find links to aid organizations. I have no particular recomendations, but any aid that can be given will be a blessing.

I opened this post, however, to comment on this blog entry by Darrel Plant. I think this is a perfect example of what drives this administration. As Darrel points out, we are spending vastly more on Iraq, which with the WMD off the table, is supposedly about helping Iraqis. So why aren't we a great deal more generous when it comes to the tsunami victims. My impression is that the only force which drives these people is their own material well being. Attacking Iraq was seen by them as protecting themselves, it serves to improve their own material well being. There was fear of Saddam and attacking Iraq quelled that fear. Therefore they can spend any amount of money, any number of lives, inflict any casualties, commit any barbarity or crime against people in Iraq, because they percieve doing so as serving their own material self interests. There is similarly no reason to expend much of anything for the tsunami victims because nothing about the tsunami threatens the material well being of the members of this administration. They just don't care. That is why we are expending so much more effort on Iraq than on the tsunami.