Breeding Contempt

The scale of the tragedy in Haiti is only now becoming clear, but there are already plenty of folks in the sophisticated commentariat lining up to place whatever blame they can find on ... the US? This bit from Naked Capitalism - a blog I normally like to read - is typical:

Clash over Haiti aid flights: French blame US over medical delays. This is THE lead story in the Financial Times. Per the Greg Palast link provided yesterday, Iceland and China both got some help to Haiti before the US did. The US, by contrast, sends an aircraft carrier three days into the crisis, with no emergency supplies of any kind. And we have this as the lead story in the New York Times: Rescues Beat Dimming Odds in Haiti when this story Looters roam Port-au-Prince as earthquake death toll estimate climbs Guardian (hat tip reader Michael T) seems a much more accurate take of the state of affairs. Now perhaps somewhere in the US, the MSM is providing coverage of our shades-of-Katrina operations in Haiti, but it looks as if that story is instead being told abroad, while here, we are getting heartwarming stories of rescues.

Pardon me, but since when did Haiti become the 51st state? The US has absolutely no moral or legal obligation to Haiti beyond the simple desire to assist a shattered nation in a time of need. Iceland got there before the US?Hey, good for them, but I don't think that makes Iceland a "better" country or the US worse. And, as long as we're comparing records, I feel pretty comfortable stacking the US's record in alleviating post-disaster misery over that of anyone else you could name.

A lot of these complaints seem to be coming from European (or Euro-phile) sources, so I think now is the time to mention that the Belgian doctors who ran away from a triage center because of "security concerns" displayed the sort of redoubtable bravery that sophisticated "citizens of the world" have become know for. The fact is that, when the time came to help a desperate people, it was the progressives like the French who felt that this was the perfect time to declare that the US was "occupying" Haiti, rather than shut up and get to work.

Also beneath contempt are the journalists making a big show of "helping" by schlepping water for the cameras, and the like, while complaining loudly about the lack of a supply chain to bring relief supplies to people in need. I turned on (and kept turning off) Fox the other night because it seemed to be broadcasting an endless loop of Geraldo bitching about relief supplies. Yes, a human tragedy is unfolding; but it wasn't so tragic that Geraldo couldn't spend hours on end talking about himself, in between ads for dietary supplements. Disaster coverage is often repetitive since the individual journalists often have no idea what's going on a mile away, or even right before their eyes, but this was painfully unwatchable.

As George Bush learned, there are a lot of people out there who can't turn off politics even when there are bodies decomposing in the streets and thousands dying in crumpled buildings. What good that is supposed to do I have no idea.