Times Says We're Stingy, Too

First the UN said we're "stingy;" now the New York Times, always eager to defend the UN, has chimed in as well in an editorial today. First of all, the Times flip flops within a matter of lines (isn't the election over? well, to most of us, anyway):
We hope Secretary of State Colin Powell was privately embarrassed when, two days into a catastrophic disaster that hit 12 of the world's poorer countries and will cost billions of dollars to meliorate, he held a press conference to say that America, the world's richest nation, would contribute $15 million. That's less than half of what Republicans plan to spend on the Bush inaugural festivities. The American aid figure for the current disaster is now $35 million, and we applaud Mr. Bush's turnaround.Is it $15 million or $35? They obviously knew that the $15 million figure was outdated, so why peddle it? The weakest part of the editorial comes here, though:

Bush administration officials help create that perception gap. Fuming at the charge of stinginess, Mr. Powell pointed to disaster relief and said the United States "has given more aid in the last four years than any other nation or combination of nations in the world." But for development aid, America gave $16.2 billion in 2003; the European Union gave $37.1 billion. In 2002, those numbers were $13.2 billion for America, and $29.9 billion for Europe.The Times sure took Powell literally. He said "combination of nations" and they took him to task, counting up 25 nations! One would only hope that France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland and 19 other nations contribute more aid per year than the US alone.The US is a generous nation. Could we be more generous? Yes, but Secretary Powell already said that U.S. assistance for this trajedy will exceed $1 billion. To jump all over the administration this fast is uncalled for.UPDATE: Jonah Goldberg of the National Review has slammed the UN in his column, "Turtle Bay Catch-22: The odious U.N." Among other things, he points out that American citizens send some $34 billion in private aid annually, ten times the United Nations entire budget.