Here's a Big Idea I just had, somebody shoot me down if this is nuts.
I'm looking at this CNN article on the disaster in Indonesia, and the UN undersecretary-general Jan Egeland is criticzing the amount of aid the US has pledged to give ($15M) as "stingy."
It occurred to me....the rest of the world does not see the USA the way see ourselves--generous and truly committed to selflessness and altruism and concern for the welfare of others (which is what is supposedly motivating us in Iraq and the War on Terror). There are a lot of Muslims in that region of the world, and a lot of them don't think too highly of us.
So here's my Big Idea:
Since the man said we were stingy, let's give
$1B or some such huge amount of aid. Let's help them build a warning system so this doesn't happen again. Not only would it be a good, even noble, even Christian thing to do, I think it would do quite a bit for the USA's image abroad, which admittedly has suffered in the last three years or so. I figure we've already spent $200B in Iraq alone, this $1B will go at lot further than $1B will in Iraq. OBL and AQ would have a harder time convincing people to blow Americans up after that, I would think.
I dunno, is this worth contacting Senators about?