People seem to be really obsessed over how much cash different countries are pledging. One thing that doesn't (surprise) get that much coverage is how much money different countries have already spent in reality.
As I surf the web, one thing that comes up over and over is the utter lack of understanding of logistics. It's as if some people imagine that food, water, shelter, clothing just magically appear to victims of the Tsunamis. One almost imagines they they picture a Star Trek like beaming sequence of food stuffs to isolated groups of people in the Indian ocean region.
But in reality, this stuff has to be delivered and it has to be delivered quickly. How long can you go without fresh water? How long can you go without food? How about medical treatment? That's where the US military comes into play. And it's amazing how little coverage this is getting because as a practical matter, the US (and Australia) are the only two countries that are able to effectively deliver aid in a timely manner.
Rebuilding funds from around the world months from now will be very helpful. But they'd be pretty useless to the tens of thousands who would die if there wasn't a US Navy to actually provide the logistics to provide all the stuff.
As Varifrank wrote:
Today, during an afternoon conference that wrapped up my project of the last 18 months, one of my Euro collegues tossed this little turd out to no one in particular:
" See, this is why George Bush is so dumb, theres a disaster in the world and he sends an Aircraft Carrier..."
After which he and many of my Euro collegues laughed out loud.
And then they looked at me. I wasn't laughing, and neither was my Hindi friend sitting next to me, who has lost family in the disaster.
I'm afraid I was "unprofessional", I let it loose -
"Hmmm, let's see, what would be the ideal ship to send to a disaster, now what kind of ship would we want?
Something with its own inexhuastible power supply?
Something that can produce 900,000 gallons of fresh water a day from sea water?
Something with its own airfield? So that after producing the fresh water, it could help distribute it?
Something with 4 hospitals and lots of open space for emergency supplies?
Something with a global communications facility to make the coordination of disaster relief in the region easier?
Well "Franz", us peasants in America call that kind of ship an "Aircraft Carrier". We have 12 of them. How many do you have?
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The first annual "Best Skins of the Year" award, "The Skinnies" is now out. 
