Thursday, January 06, 2005
A Few Links
A few things I must comment on. One is Bill Whittle's superb new book, Silent America. Please do check it out, if you haven't yet done so. I've already given two copies as gifts, in addition to the copy I bought for myself; I don't know if the guy needs the money, but I do know that his message needs to get out.
Please do go out and buy this book. If you prefer, get a taste first by reading Bill's essays from his Website. This one is among my favorites.
Another comment I must make is my admiration for the men and women of the U.S.S. Lincoln carrier group, currently on duty in the Indian Ocean, providing emergency relief for hundreds of thousands of tsunami victims. Yes, I know that many other countries (Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and others) are providing personnel, equipment, and supplies, while donations pour in from around the world. But the heavy lifting has unquestionably been led by the U.S. Navy and Marines, and my hat's off to them all. (For details on what has been done, and notably on what the UN has not done, check out The Diplomad. Just keep scrolling. The indispensable Belmont Club has a lot too.)
That should do it for now...
--DiB
UPDATE: On the subject of what the U.S. is doing in the tsunami aftermath (and what some other countries are not doing), read this little gem by VariFrank. A brief excerpt to whet your appetite:
Today, during an afternoon conference that wrapped up my project of the last 18 months, one of my Euro collegues tossed this little turd out to no one in particular:
"See, this is why George Bush is so dumb, theres a disaster in the world and he sends an Aircraft Carrier..."After which he and many of my Euro collegues laughed out loud. and then they looked at me. I wasn't laughing, and neither was my Hindi friend sitting next to me, who has lost family in the disaster.
I'm afraid I was "unprofessional", I let it loose -
"Hmmm, let's see, what would be the ideal ship to send to a disaster, now what kind of ship would we want? Something with its own inexhuastible power supply? Something that can produce 900,000 gallons of fresh water a day from sea water? Something with its own airfield? So that after producing the fresh water, it could help distribute it? Something with 4 hospitals and lots of open space for emergency supplies? Something with a global communications facility to make the coordination of disaster relief in the region easier?
Well "Franz", us peasants in America call that kind of ship an "Aircraft Carrier". We have 12 of them...
