America the beautiful

The International Red Cross announced its decision to further cut back operations in Iraq following the latest terrorist attack against its Baghdad headquarters. The IRC announcement came on the heels of a United Nations’ decision to do the same thing for the same reason.

Doctors Without Borders also decided to leave the Iraqis to fend for themselves. And at the International Donor’s Conference in Madrid, most of the world made the same decision.

While the Russians offered to “invest” $4 billion in Iraq, Moscow didn’t offer any direct aid. The French and Germans did even less. They didn’t offer to invest, they didn’t offer to help and they didn’t offer any grants or loans. Instead, they reminded the conference that Iraq already owes them hundreds of billions of dollars, and they wanted to know when they were going to be repaid.

The donors’ conference managed to raise $13 billion dollars in loans and grants from nations other than the U.S. – the majority of it in loans.

The Saudis made a big deal of their $1 billion pledge. In the past, the Saudis have held telethons to support terrorist groups like Hamas. The money raised from telethons is given as a gift to the terrorists.

But the billion dollars from the Saudis isn’t a grant – it’s a loan that Riyadh expects Iraq to pay back.

Canada offered $300 million to help the Iraqis – spread out over two years and conditional on it being administered by the U.N.

Leaving the United States to kick in the remaining $87 billion. And thanks to a congressional conference committee’s agreement yesterday, $20 billion of that is an outright gift. There was the usual partisan bickering about “America borrowing money for Iraq so that Iraqis don’t have to,” but then I was suddenly struck by the larger picture.

Forget the partisanship and the politics for a second with me and look at the Big Picture here.

The United States, recognizing an evil in the regime of Saddam Hussein, defied global opinion, assembled a half-hearted coalition and went in and removed the tyrant. His removal exposed the evil of his regime for the entire world to see. His killing fields were uncovered. Hundreds of thousands were murdered, many of them hideously tortured first.

The rest of the world, with very few exceptions, is unmoved by the tragedy. The donors’ conference accurately reflects global apathy concerning Iraq’s plight. The world community has largely turned its back on the newly freed Iraqis. The Red Cross, U.N. and Doctors Without Borders cut and ran from Iraq following attacks by the very people they came to assist.

The rest of the world decided it would rather sit this one out than expose themselves to retaliation by the terrorists, leaving the United States holding the bag.

America shouldered the burden – together with the rest of the attending baggage – because nobody else would. Not because it’s popular. Or because it will be easy. But because it’s the right thing to do.

What a country!