Yahoo! News - Bush Orders Flag Tribute to Tsunami Victims: "A day after he raised the U.S. tsunami aid contribution ten-fold to $350 million amid pressure from critics, Bush used his weekly radio address to emphasize the need for private relief donations to a region where giant waves killed nearly 127,000 people and left 5 million homeless.
'The carnage is of a scale that defies comprehension,' said Bush, who announced that $15 million of U.S. aid has now been disbursed to relief organizations in the area.
Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and the president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, were due to leave for the tsunami-devastated region on Sunday as part of a delegation assigned to assess the need for further U.S. assistance.
Bush created the delegation and dramatically increased the U.S. relief contribution after criticism over the size and scale of his initial response to the catastrophe that struck 13 countries from Malaysia to East Africa six days ago.
Critics have noted that the government authorized $13.6 billion in aid for hurricane-battered U.S. states, mainly Florida, before last November's election. "

And just what sort of world do we live in where the president of the US needs to be pressured into sending aid to disaster-stricken countries?