http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45938-2005Jan3.html?nav=rss_opinion/opeds
David Ignatius suggests that the images on TV of soldiers delivering water bottles to starving tsunami victims will be a powerful counter to the images of hate and death that Osama Bin Laden has been promoting the last several years.
With that in mind, I propose a major national service program similar in scale to WW2 and our push to go to the moon to rebuild all the areas affected by the tsunami. This program would not only create jobs and wipe out the current economic stagnation, but deliver badly needed food and supplies to the affected regions. It would also debunk the image created by Bin Laden that the US is the enemy of Islam and show him up as an individual consumed with hatred.
This plan would even increase chances of him being caught. If the amount of goodwill towards the US is dramatically increased by this program, it follows that someone will recognize Bin Laden.
First of all, the US, through Clinton and Bush I and other people who are proven fundraisers should hold $1000-a-plate fundraisers around the country and globe to raise money for this project. The President could make a televised address asking Americans to contribute to the cause. Then, the US should make massive purchase orders of food, clothes, medicine, lumber, and other equipment and work with relief agencies and local officials to get these supplies to the people.
This would create a massive influx of new jobs. In addition, I suggest that college students or people who were in college just a few years ago who work on these projects have their loans forgiven. In conjunction with this, the President could work with Citizens Against Government Waste to identify and eliminate wasteful projects to pay for this. This would not only address the massive problem of government waste, it would supply the workers needed to get a project on this kind of a scale done. Even if 200,000 students took advantage of this program, it would only cost $8 billion. That is barely a dent in government finances.
The corporations would deliver the food and supplies to the US Army, who could deliver the supplies overseas. This is where the images of US troops delivering food to the needy would come into play. It would improve morale in the military because our troops would be doing something worthwhile. And it would make us look good in the Muslim world, which is important in combating Bin Laden and his hateful rhetoric.
Overseas, the US could hire local workers and buy some supplies locally to rebuild the communities devastated by the hurricane. That would pump some money into the local economies so they can take care of themselves once the US leaves.
Best of all, it would not cost the taxpayers a thing. That way, nobody can complain about how the government is taking away their hard-earned cash and spending it on pork.