What is even more interesting is when you look at total amounts donated, the US always seems to be in the lead (or close to it). When you look at percentage of GNP or amount per capita, however, they are often one of the lowest. Sort of reminds me of the two mites parable.

BTW – Jeffrey, I think that the Tsunami relief amount is a bit of myth due to the way the accounting goes.

As to how it gets reported in Canada, I wouldn’t be surprised if the CBC tries to put the worst face on things. Every time I got home I’m really shocked at the CBC wearing heavy bias on its sleeves. It make FoxNews seem positively objective and comprehensive.

I realize this blog is run by Canadians, but I consider this post to be a throwdown – you have offended my Yank sensibilities. Bear with me while I vent.

“another million troops in country – rather than running around in a desert somewhere?”

Yup, that is exactly what they are doing. Four men from my ward are serving in the middle east right now. The letters they send home report that they spend about half their time building schools and hospitals and helping the Iraqis get on with their lives in a very dangerous environment. They are literally risking their lives in order to help people. If you repeated your trivialization of what they are doing – just running around a desert somewhere -in the presence of their mothers or fathers, you would deserve, and probably get, a fat lip.

“You actually expect help from France or Germany?”

Tens of thousands of Yanks died in Europe in a successful effort to preserve democracy, my uncle among them. My father landed at Normandy on D-day and carried shrapnel in his leg until the day he died. I don’t think it is a stretch to say that neither country would exist as a prosperous democracy today were it not for the US and its allies, including Canada. Today, both France and Germany continue to practice the kind of foreign policy that requires the Yanks to come over every generation or so and straighten things out. By my reckoning, they both owe the allies a debt that can never be repaid, but I’m not holding my breath. So, no, I do not expect a single euro.

spending a billion dollars every year on the occupation of another sovereign state?

I see no difference between Iraq, 2005, and Germany and Japan, 1945. All three countries are better off because the U.S. and its allies, including Canada, stepped in. Iraq was a huge gamble, maybe too much of a gamble. But I think you will agree, It was amazing to watch Iraqis vote, especially Iraqi women.

And I hear them saying
You’ll never change things
And no matter what you do
It’s still the same old thing
But it’s not the world
That I am changing
I do this so this world will know
That it will not change me

This heart still believes
That love and mercey still exists
While all the hatreds rage
And so many say that love
Is all but pointless
And that man such as this
Is like stopping a fighter
With the moisture of a kiss

I hear them saying
You’ll never change things
And no matter what you do
It’s still the same thing
But it’s not the world
That I am changing
I do this so this world
We know never changes me

Looks like Bush changed his mind:

“Hundreds of National Guard troops hardened on the battlefield in Iraq have landed in New Orleans.”

At least some of them are back.