U.S. Greatly Boosts Tsunami Aid

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Dec. 31 -- President Bush on Friday increased the U.S. financial contribution for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami to $350 million, 10 times the previous pledge toward the emergency effort to funnel food, water and medicine to about 5 million people in South Asia and parts of Africa.

It is gratifying to know that it finally occurred to him to pledge more than is being spent on his inaugural. It is still a little embarassing that the Japanese are the largest single donor, having pledged half a billion. (Not that we might want to be seen as a generous and helpful country in an area of the world where there are millions of Muslims or anything.)

To be fair, the naval vessels and personnel we've sent will be a big help when they get there. And assessments of the need are still in progress. But wouldn't it have been nice to have the President of the United States on the air in the first few hours, with an expression of sympathy, an initial pledge, and a call for a world-wide relief fund, based on back-of-the-envelope calculations? Wouldn't that have been, dare I say it, the Christian thing to do?