Grand Misuse of Foreign Aid?
As reported by columnist Carlos Guerra in Sunday's San Antonio Express-News, edited somewhat by me for brevity. I see parallels: we're bungling foreign Hurricane Katrina disaster relief as we have bungled the war and any semblance of diplomacy in Iraq. Is it any wonder that the foreign press has no kind words for us regarding our Iraq endeavor, as Jeff shares with us today?
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Last Thursday, 47 Mexican military vehicles -- mostly heavy trucks and 18-wheelers modified for rough terrain -- rolled into KellyUSA, putting 195 Mexican soldiers, both men and women, on U.S. soil.

What Mexico sent us, however, is more than a symbolic token. They brought valuable expertise in dealing with the consequences of hurricanes, as well as the capacity to provide two basic necessities that often vanish after disasters: hot food and drinking water.

They brought two huge field kitchens, three mess tents (with tables and chairs), water treatment plants and ingredients for serving three hot meals to 7,000 people daily for 20 days. Minutes after they arrived, soldiers ran in formation, some to set up the kitchens and others to pitch the mess tents. The 500 meals requested at Kelly, Ortiz said, would be ready in two hours.

Brig. Gen. F.J. Prasek, who escorted them, pointed out that the Mexicans are under FEMA's, not the U.S. Army's direction. FEMA asked U.S. forces only to escort them from the border to San Antonio, where he said they will stay.

But San Antonio has some of the nation's cleanest water, I told FEMA press officer Christopher White, and all the evacuees who came here have been served hot meals since they arrived. Why wasn't Mexico's specialized help sent to the hurricane-battered area, where entire towns have been flattened and where 73 drinking water systems in Alabama, 555 in Mississippi and 469 in Louisiana are compromised or nonfunctional?

"Good question," he said, and promised to check. He called back to say that the State Department is handling all foreign relief help.

State Department press officer Jeanne Moore, however, hadn't heard of the Mexican convoy, and after checking into it, called back.

But she could only refer me to a press briefing by State Department spokesman Shawn McCormack.

Asked by a reporter Thursday what help the Mexican convoy would provide, McCormack replied: "As far as I know, they're part of a transportation convoy. As for how the aid gets distributed on the ground, I think the folks at (Department of Human Services) and FEMA or (Department of Defense) would be in a better position to answer that."

Left Hand, let me introduce you to Right Hand. You should talk before you embarrass us even more.

==we're bungling foreign Hurricane Katrina disaster relief as we have bungled the war and any semblance of diplomacy in Iraq. Is it any wonder that the foreign press has no kind words for us regarding our Iraq endeavor, as Jeff shares with us today?
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Last Thursday, 47 Mexican military vehicles -- mostly heavy trucks and 18-wheelers modified for rough terrain -- rolled into KellyUSA, putting 195 Mexican soldiers, both men and women, on U.S. soil.
***
Prasek, who escorted them, pointed out that the Mexicans are under FEMA's, not the U.S. Army's direction. FEMA asked U.S. forces only to escort them from the border to San Antonio, where he said they will stay.==

Seems like we're living in some kind of new world. Remember the Alamo?

Nice incredibly biased piece of reporting. Could you single out every left wing paper in the World. The Guardian makes the Nation look right wing. The paper that had to recently fire a journalist for being an active member in an al-qaida affiliated group.

I like how you throw in the Israeli paper as the "one dissenting voice." Those jews planned the whole thing anyway right?

Disgusting

History is full of tyrants who staged attacks on their own people to trick them into wars and out of their civil rights.

Mayor: Recovering 9/11 remains from landfill 'totally impractical'
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/nyc-land0818,0,3275577.story?coll=ny-statenews-headlines
"The cost would be about a billion dollars!"

THE 5 DANCING ISRAELIS ARRESTED ON 9/11
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/fiveisraelis.html
"Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information." -- US official quoted in Carl Cameron's Fox News report on the Israeli spy ring and its connections to 9-11.

It's been 1,456 days since GWB said he'd catch UBL 'Dead or Alive!'

I recommend that anyone read the link provided by Crusader Bunnypants so they will know how truly sick and disturbed the anti-semitic Israel-haters really are.

Some of these comments follow the 'blame the messenger' stereotype. Those claiming conspiracy need to catch up with their medication.

The Guardian is a left wing publication but the message can just as easily be found in the Telegraph or Daily Mail (local right wing publications). Indeed, the United States has squandered all the symapthy it had as a result of 9-11. I am not shocked by this. Waging a war of choice in Iraq was silly and reckless. I have long campaigned for the removal of Saddam but this was bungled badly and Europeans have suffered with us as a result. They are within their rights to feel aggrieved at what has happened and Americans should recognize their efforts in Afghanistan and elsewhere helping us fight the real perpetrators of the 9-11 outrage.

Well said Mr Fox. How many Americans even remember that the French (and Germans and Canadians and many others) immediately offered troops for Afghanistan?
They're still there today, even though the only gratitude the French have seen is to be continually branded as cowards.
If they didn't go into Iraq it wasn't because of oil-for-food, unless somebody wants to make a case that the entire French electorate was in Saddam's pay. They didn't go because they thought it was wrong and stupid. Events have proved them 100% correct.

"Waging a war of choice in Iraq was silly and reckless."

Then why did everyone from Tony Blair to Bill Clinton to the US Congress state that a military conflict with Saddam was inevidable since 1998?

Who could possibly care what these British rags fill their pages with? Who (worth listening to) thought the war in Iraq was going to be easy? We had been taking the easy route in the Arab Middle East for 60 years, right through to Sept. 11, 2001, and profiting mightily the whole time.

I'm pro-war, I've spent a lot of time living in Egypt, but I'm certainly not pro-Israel. I could hardly care less what happens to those people, as they pursue self-defeating policies and suck-up American resources over the decades.

The noise out of the European press is just that; you might as well tune in to Kofi talking about how he wants to reform the UN. It's the most cynical and self-serving tripe that well-educated people can come up with.

An impassioned and historically relevant basis on which to judge the Iraq war can be found easy enough in one of Christopher Hitchens latest, "A War to Be Proud Of:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=5995&R=C68B2A43B