You thought it was just FEMA that's dragging its heels on accepting help? (Well, no, you didn't really.) This "You're offering emergency aid? We'll get back to you" attitude runs throughout the Bush administration.
CBS News has this story just out: "Nations Say U.S. Slow To Take Aid"
Some of the nations offering aid to the United States after Hurricane Katrina are reporting delays in getting a green light to send help. But a senior State Department official said Washington was evaluating its needs and had not rejected those donations.
From Sweden:
For four days, a C-130 transport plane ready to lift emergency supplies to Katrina victims has stood idle at the Satenas air force base in southern Sweden.
The aid includes a water purification system that may be urgently needed amid signs deadly diseases may be spreading through fetid pools in New Orleans, and blankets for those left homeless.
From Canada:
More than a week after Canada first offered to send military support, three Canadian warships and one coast guard ship departed for the Gulf Coast on Wednesday.
From Switzerland:
In Switzerland, aid officials expected an answer to their aid offer by Tuesday night. They met Wednesday afternoon to discuss what to do while waiting for a response.
From Poland (remember Poland?) and other European countries:
Poland, Austria and Norway also had not heard back on their aid offers, and countries in Asia also were waiting for replies.
From India:
India, which regularly is hit by flooding unleashed by monsoon rains, has a planeload of supplies waiting but nowhere to send it.
Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan are all waiting.
Some countries have heard back: The European Commission, Britain, Germany, Russia. Aid from some of these is on its way. But not, it seems, from Canada.
Although the government in Ottawa has been careful not to criticize the slow response, newspaper editorials asked why Washington seemed reluctant to accept Canadian aid.
The media rushes in where the government fears to tread. (Well, the Canadian media doesn't have to fear the wrath of Bush.)
Other news stories are blaming FEMA, too:
Elites TV: "FEMA Inefficiency Delays Implementation of Aid From Other Countries In Katrina's Wake", quoting from the Washington Post:
Mirit Hemy, an executive with the Netherlands-based New Skies Satellite told the 'Washington Post,' 'FEMA? That was a lost cause. We got zero help, and we lost one week trying to get hold of them.'
Canada offered four rescue vessels and two helicopters nearly a week ago. Their offer of aid has finally been accepted but due to bureaucratic delays by FEMA, the ships will not arrive in the Gulf Region until this coming Saturday. They spent a week waiting for the go ahead in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Bella Online reports that the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency REJECTED Aid".
And from the Washington Times, reprinted in the World Peace Herald: "U.S. declines some foreign offers of hurricane aid".
The United States has accepted help from about 40 countries for the victims of Hurricane Katrina -- fewer than half of those that offered -- including high-speed water pumps, food, cruise ships and more than $400 million in cash, U.S. officials said yesterday.
Although no offer has been rejected officially, proposals from Cuba and other countries to send doctors or nurses have not been accepted because there is enough U.S. medical personnel to deal with the crisis for now, the State Department said.
Yes, it can take some time to coordinate needs and offers. But some things - like the Canadian and Swedish offers - are so obvious and so needed that it borders on (or crosses over into) criminal negligence to sit on an effort of immediate aid that can keep people from dying, until after they are already dead.