Trying to Manage a Real Crisis

Colin Powell said U.S. aid to tsunami-stricken countries "does give the Muslim world and the rest of the world an opportunity to see American generosity, American values in action. ... I hope that, as a result of our efforts, as a result of our helicopter pilots' being seen by the citizens of Indonesia helping them, that value system of ours will be reinforced." The editor of Beirut's The Star disagreed: "To think that aid would make people overlook all the other reasons to criticize the U.S. - it's naive, it's racist, it's almost insulting." In the Indonesian province of Aceh, "Australian journalists who witnessed a confrontation between Indonesian soldiers and alleged separatists ... were ordered to leave the area and warned not to report on the incident." One commander told the journalists, "Your duties here are to observe the disaster, not the conflict."