Clarification?

In a recent blog, I lambasted the ever-confusing George Bush after his announcement that the US wanted to lead a core group of nations in the Tsunami relief efforts.

Bush's announcement was initially received by many, including myself, as another attempt by the US to be posturing in a leadership role, but more seriously, as a deliberate and pronounced attempt to further undermine the United Nations.

However, it seems we can now hope this is the beginning of a potentially happy marriage between the United States and the United Nations. Obviously, the United Nations has never before been faced with a task of this magnitude. It's not in one immediate area, but rather, spread out over thousands of kilometres of coastline and throughout numerous nations.

This has understandably left Jan Egeland (the UN bloke most responsible for overseeing these efforts) extremely daunted because it's not a single relief effort for the UN, but more like seven massive, widespread operations.

And this is why it has come to pass that the US will indeed lead a core group of contributing nations (including Canada, as of yesterday) who will be working in conjunction with the UN, but with the UN calling most of the shots. (This raises the issue of Bush's past pronouncements that no American soldier will be under the command of any other national. It doesn't scream "cooperation," does it?)

I do have a lot of concerns remaining over how much influence the US will seek to have over this geographic region in the coming months, years even, as this reconstruction gains momentum, but am glad to see this level of response starting to happen.

World powers have World responsibilities, and it's nice to see the US acting with that in mind for a change... even if the actions may be resulting from other motivations.