Foreign Katrina Response

I've started hearing a steady drumbeat of people complaining that the international community isn't helping the United States in our hour of need the way we help others. Just yesterday the two announcers on WTBS's Nationals-Braves coverage raised the issue, as did someone being interviewed on CNN during the midnight hour as I was going to bed.

Media coverage has been so New Orleans-focused that I don't think anyone can really say what the international response has been, though I did see a CNN crawl yesterday with lots of countries which had pledged some sort of support, and a quick trip over to Google News turns up this story and this one. What I fear, however, is that this tale of how we were ignored by the international community will evolve into a truism, kind of like the common belief I get even from well-informed liberal friends that Muslims never condemn terrorism.

At the moment, this is a minor issue next to the devastation along the Gulf coast, but I would hate to see us emerge from this somehow self-righteous and bitter and less willing to use our vast resources to help others in the future.

(Cross-posted to Liberals Against Terrorism.)

UPDATE: Nadezhda and CNN both have collections of pledges of foreign assistance.