Thank You Notes Received

There are those who will say that America is big enough and rich enough to take care of itself, even after Katrina. I say it is better to show the world that we're not that proud, and accept a helping hand.

Here are some countries who have done the right thing, and offered help to a country that has helped them:

Kuwait, which we liberated from Iraq in 1991: $500 million in oil products and humanitarian aid.

BBC reports:

• Singapore, recipient of tsunami aid, is sending Chinook helicopters.
• Israel has offered medical teams
• Poor Sri Lanka, with much tsunami repair to be made, showed its gratitude with a pledge of $250,000 to the American Red Cross. Very classy, but we should ask the Red Cross to direct these funds back to Sri Lanka relief.
  
• The Australians, always good friends, have pledged $8 million to the charity.
• Japan, the global cheapskates when it comes to charitable giving, pledged less than Sri Lanka: $200,000.
  

USA Today notes that France has offered airlift support and two relief teams totalling 55 people, and lists offers of aid from these other countries, through last Friday:

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

Of course, there's always someone ready to make political hay out of someone else's tragedy, and in this case it's the Marxism brothers, Fidel and Hugo. Castro can keep his doctors -- unless they'd like to defect. And Chavez, offering oil, but only to the poor, can keep his bloody hands out of our country.