World offers help Bush dithers People die

The following nations were reported Saturday as having offered aid to the stricken U.S. victims of Katrina and Bush's ineptitude:

• World aid offers
  • Armenia
  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Azerbaijan
  • Bahamas
  • Belgium
  • Britain
  • Canada
  • China
  • Colombia
  • Cuba
  • Dominica
  • Dominican Republic
  • Ecuador
  • El Salvador
  • France
  • Georgia
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Guatemala
  • Guyana
  • Honduras
  • Hungary
  • Iceland
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Israel
  • Italy
  • Jamaica
  • Japan
  • Jordan
  • Lithuania
  • Luxembourg
  • Mexico
  • Netherlands
  • New Zealand
  • Norway
  • Paraguay
  • Philippines
  • Portugal
  • Russia
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Singapore
  • Slovak Republic
  • Slovenia
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • South Korea
  • Sri Lanka
  • Taiwan
  • Thailand
  • Turkey
  • Venezuela
  • United Arab Emirates

[From AP via The Fort Worth Star-Telegram ]
This is the Bush administrations reaction:

"The Bush administration has offered mixed signals on whether it will accept aid.

In an ABC-TV interview Thursday, President Bush said the United States is not seeking foreign assistance.

"This country is going to rise up and take care of it," he said.

That statement prompted an angry editorial Friday from the Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner: "Sometimes even the high and mighty need to realize that we all need each other and that they would not lose face were they to accept some tangible help from others who have been the beneficiaries of their generosity in the past."

But Friday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed "the heartfelt thanks of the president, the United States government and all Americans" to those who had offered support. She said she was "deeply touched" by Sri Lanka's offer of help.

"We've turned down no offers," she said."

That translates to hapless dithering at the White House until someone tells them what decision to make. The problem is that the decision can't be made there. Bush hasn't a clue and Cheney is out of town at an unknown location.

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From the Washington Post [via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Sunday]we get this reaction:

"Almost 70 countries and a number of international organizations have offered Washington aid and technical assistance. Qatar, at $100 million, has pledged the most thus far.

In nations often divided by dueling sentiments of admiration and distaste for the United States, international reaction has shifted in many cases from shock, sympathy and generosity, to a growing criticism of the Bush administration's response.

The delay in getting aid to New Orleans repeatedly raised issues of race and skin color. "Is This Because The Stricken are Blacks?" asked a headline in the English-language Times of India."

Someone tell Bush that the world is out there - and the people there are watching him as he dithers and fails.

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Someone must have told the White House to act. According to the UN News Center:

4 September 2005 – The United Nations announced today that the United States Government has accepted the world body's offer of help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

You know this wasn't a decision Bush made. He is probably out riding his bicycle somewhere to work off his tension.