Tsunami: President stalls, reading "My Pet Goat" again?

There are some interesting parallels between America's response to 9-11 and the Tsunami. In both cases:

Pet Goats in Crawford

The President was caught napping, with that glazed-eyed-look. 9-11 he continued reading "My Pet Goat", while during the Tsunami he made up new names for "Why my ranch should not be associated with Waco."--his ranch is closer to Waco, Texas than Crawford.

The post disaster planning was inadequate

Using the White House's "logic" Iraq was related to 9-11; so we can include the botched Iraqi planning as a "botched response" to 9-11.

In a similar vein, we have the same thing occurring in the Tsunami. No matter what you say, they originally offered only a few million dollars; even Japan has offered more.

Action without regard to the UN

The United States in Iraq moved without regard to the UN. After the Tsunami, the White House created new fiction by suggesting the "core group" was actually "no different than" the United Nations. That's kind of like saying Mad Cow disease is no different than a mad cow.

Questions

Why is the United States suddenly "concerned" with the United Nations opinion of the US?

With more than 150,000 deaths in Asia, the United States knows that the post-9-11 honeymoon is ebbing. Bluntly, 3,000 deaths on 9-11 pales in comparison.

Despite committing war crimes in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, why should we believe the last thing the United States wants to do is alienate even more people and must act to assist the Tsunami victims?

For so long the United States has moved without regard to world opinion. It remains a puzzle, why despite the many abuses of human rights, the United States wants the world to believe it "suddenly cares."

In short, the post 9-11 US actions have been such an affront to human rights and international opinion, I'm not persuaded that the US "suddenly cares" whether the world is upset over the initial paltry offering.

If we are to take the President at his word [which I do not], then we are to believe that the CIA and NSA [despite the satellites] did not timely provide the NSC with photos of the scope of the devastation.

Indeed, we raise questions about the veracity of statements in re North Korea's mushroom cloud. Surely if NSA and CIA had "good information" in Korea to immediately dismiss the conjecture about a nuclear weapon, then we have yet to have a clear story why it took more than 72 hours for the President to act in re the Tsunami.

It's far more likely the US is moving in its own self-interests. And it took a while for the President and NSC staff to realize what could be "gained" by the US acting.

If, as the White House would have us believe, that they "didn't know", we might also ask "What else do they want us to believe they don't know"?

The answer is: War crimes in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. DoD was so afraid of being linked with war crimes, its DoD personnel feigned association with DoJ's FBI.

Regardless the nuance, both DoD and DoJ remain closely aligned in the JTTF. Don't wait for anything this Thursday at Gonzalez's confirmation hearings.