Romesh Ratnesar takes to the pages of TIME to ask, in apparent seriousness, “Is It Time to Invade Burma?”

The disaster in Burma presents the world with perhaps its most serious humanitarian crisis since the 2004 Asian tsunami. By most reliable estimates, close to 100,000 people are dead. Delays in delivering relief to the victims, the inaccessibility of the stricken areas and the poor state of Burma’s infrastructure and health systems mean that number is sure to rise. With as many as 1 million people still at risk, it is conceivable that the death toll will, within days, approach that of the entire number of civilians killed in the genocide in Darfur.

So what is the world doing about it? Not much. The military regime that runs Burma initially signaled it would accept outside relief, but has imposed so many conditions on those who would actually deliver it that barely a trickle has made it through. Aid workers have been held at airports. U.N. food shipments have been seized. U.S. naval ships packed with food and medicine idle in the Gulf of Thailand, waiting for an all-clear that may never come.

[...]

That’s why it’s time to consider a more serious option: invading Burma. Some observers, including former USAID director Andrew Natsios, have called on the U.S. to unilaterally begin air drops to the Burmese people regardless of what the junta says. The Bush Administration has so far rejected the idea — “I can’t imagine us going in without the permission of the Myanmar government,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday — but it’s not without precedent: as Natsios pointed out to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. has facilitated the delivery of humanitarian aid without the host government’s consent in places like Bosnia and Sudan.

Let me just go on the record: Hell no, it’s not time to invade Burma. Are you friggin’ kidding me?

Frankly, I don’t care what the junta in Burma wants. The international community doesn’t recognize them as legitimate. If the people who do these things for a living decide that ignoring the junta and dropping relief supplies will do more good than harm, I don’t have any problems with it.

But coercive humanitarian intervention? No, thanks.

Indonesia’s Free Aceh Movement insurgents have laid down their arms after thirty years of fighting:

Rebels in Indonesia’s tsunami-ravaged Aceh province formally disbanded their armed wing Tuesday, ending a 29-year struggle for independence that killed thousands so the movement could participate in elections next year. Free Aceh Movement fighters returned to peace talks with the government after mammoth waves crashed into Aceh’s coastlines a year ago, leaving at least 156,000 of the province’s people dead or missing and a half-million more homeless.

The two sides signed an accord in August, and the rebels last week finished handing over their self-declared 840 weapons. Tuesday’s disbanding was the next major step under the plan, and it carried large symbolic weight. “The armed wing of the Free Aceh Movement has demobilized and disbanded,” said rebel commander Sofyan Daud, effectively ending the separatist insurgency that has killed at least 15,000 people since 1976. “The Aceh national army is now part of civil society, and will work to make the peace deal a success,” he said after meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh. “We are entering a political era now. We do not need weapons anymore.”

Instead, the guerrillas will participate in April elections in this province of 4 million people on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

Good news, although a long time coming. One wonders how much longer the fighting would have continued had the tsunami not suddenly reordered Indonesia’s priorities.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will not play a role in the future government of Germany.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who has led Germany since 1998, said for the first time on Wednesday he would not play a role in the next government, in an emotional farewell including broadsides at the United States and Britain.

“I will not be a part of the next government — definitely not be part of it,” a tearful looking Schroeder told a rapt audience of union members in his home city of Hanover.

Of course, he also managed to take a swipe at the U.S. as well.

In an apparent reference to Hurricane Katrina, Schroeder castigated Washington for liberal, hands-off policies that left it exposed in times of crisis. The Bush administration was widely criticised for its response to the devastating storm.

“I do not want to name any catastrophes where you can see what happens if organised state action is absent. I could name countries, but the position I still hold forbids it, but everyone knows I mean America,” he said to loud applause.

While the devastation in economic terms was huge due to Katrina, in terms of loss of life compared to other disasters around the world there is little comparison. The recent earthquake in Pakistan has claimed 30,000 plus, the tsunami from 2004 claimed the lives of 170,000 to 275,000 people. Even the worst predictions for Hurricane Katrina have turned out to be quite far off the mark. Why? Part of the answer looks like it is due to “little” government.

Maurice Strong is stepping down from his UN post.

Maurice Strong, a long-time Canadian businessman and currently the top UN envoy for North Korea, will suspend his work for the United Nations while investigators look into his ties to a South Korean businessman accused in the UN oil-for-food scandal in Iraq.

Previous SDA posts here and here.

The Sri Lankans would like to talk to him, too.

Even as the association of Canadian Maurice Strong with “Koreagate Man” Tungsun Park was coming under world limelight, Sri Lankans were starting to demand answers about where the $425 million promised by Canada to tsunami victims is.

Four months after the tsunami hit, Sri Lankans still don’t have their money. Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin rushed to the scene for a weeklong photo op. Generous Canadians donated record amounts of money on line.

The Canadian government promised to match dollar for dollar, donations from the public. But the promised mega millions never arrived.

According to veteran newsman Garth Pritchard, in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of last December’s tsunami, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is allegedly holding the $425-million.

Kofi Annan’s special envoy to Korea Maurice Strong, also a senior advisor to Prime Minister Paul Martin, was the founding president of CIDA.

Strong is also known as the “architect” of the Kyoto protocols.

CNN reports another massive earthquake off the coast of Indonesia.

Quake strikes off Indonesia coast

An earthquake measuring a preliminary magnitude of 8.2 struck off the coast of Indonesia Monday — on the same fault line that originated a December 26 earthquake that launched a deadly tsunami. The director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said scientists there feared another tsunami might hit the area. Charles McCreary said he could not be certain that the quake, which was 30 km deep and 203 kilometer (126 miles) from Sibolga on Sumatra Island, would cause a tsunami. “There is a potential for some wave activity,” said Julie Martinez, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center, in Golden, Colorado.

Thailand issued a warning that the quake could bring a tsunami to its southern provinces. The warning, which was carried on national television, cautioned people in the six provinces to be careful and vigilant, but did not order evacuations. The quake occurred at 11:09 a.m. ET (1609 GMT), and is considered a “great” earthquake, the largest of seven grades.

Update (1300): It’s apparently George Bush’s fault.

Update (1736): US Officials Upgrade Indonesia Earthquake to 8.7 Magnitude (Sci-Tech Today)

A massive earthquake off the coast of Indonesia had a magnitude 8.7 and has a “100 percent” chance of spawning a tsunami in Asia, a US expert said. The quake, upgraded from an initial magnitude 8.2, is powerful enough to be “one of the four or five biggest earthquakes in the last century,” said Kerry Sieh, a seismologist with the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Sieh told journalists at the USGS offices at the California Institute of Technology near Los Angeles that a tidal wave appeared certain to hit.

Dozens Killed by Quake Off Sumatra; No Tsunami Yet (Reuters)

A massive 8.7 magnitude earthquake hit a small island off Indonesia’s Sumatra late on Monday, killing dozens of people, but fears across Asia of another huge tsunami soon receded, residents and officials said. The epicenter was very close to that of the Dec. 26 quake which triggered a tsunami that left nearly 300,000 people dead or missing across Asia. Monday’s earthquake killed dozens of people and destroyed hundreds of homes in Gunungsitoli, the main town on Indonesia’s Nias island, a local official told Metro TV.

“I can guarantee that dozens have died,” Agus Mendrofa, the deputy mayor of the town of about 30,000 people, said by telephone. “Gunungsitoli is now like a dead town. The situation here is in extreme panic.”

The quake, which struck close to or after midnight across the region, spread terror in western Indonesia, Sri Lanka and coastal parts of India, Malaysia and Thailand, the areas devastated by the Boxing Day tsunami.

Ugh.

Poll results in Indonesia show that US sponsored tsunami relief may be having an effect on public opinion.

In the first substantial shift of public opinion in the Muslim world since the beginning of the United States’ global war on terrorism, more people in the world’s largest Muslim country now favor American efforts against terrorism than oppose them.

[...]

For the first time ever in a major Muslim nation, more people favor US-led efforts to fight terrorism than oppose them (40% to 36%).  Importantly, those who oppose US efforts against terrorism have declined by half, from 72% in 2003 to just 36% today.

For the first time ever in a Muslim nation since 9/ 11, support for Osama Bin Laden has dropped significantly (58% favorable to just 23%).

65% of Indonesians now are more favorable to the United States because of the American response to the tsunami, with the highest percentage among people under 30.

Indeed, 71% of the people who express confidence in Bin Laden are now more favorable to the United States because of American aid to tsunami victims.

hat tip – Bill Strong

A Canadian couple who died in the December 26th tsunami took a series of digital photos of the waves that claimed their lives. The camera was destroyed, but the memory card was retrieved.

Tsunami Uncovers Ancient City in India (AP)

Archaeologists have begun underwater excavations of what is believed to be an ancient city and parts of a temple uncovered by the tsunami off the coast of a centuries-old pilgrimage town. Three rocky structures with elaborate carvings of animals have emerged near the coastal town of Mahabalipuram, which was battered by the Dec. 26 tsunami. As the waves receded, the force of the water removed sand deposits that had covered the structures, which appear to belong to a port city built in the seventh century, said T. Satyamurthy, a senior archaeologist with the Archaeological Survey of India.

Mahabalipuram is already well known for its ancient, intricately carved shore temples that have been declared a World Heritage site and are visited each year by thousands of Hindu pilgrims and tourists. According to descriptions by early British travel writers, the area was also home to seven pagodas, six of which were submerged by the sea.

The government-run archaeological society and navy divers began underwater excavations of the area on Thursday. “The tsunami has exposed a bas relief which appears to be part of a temple wall or a portion of the ancient port city. Our excavations will throw more light on these,” Satyamurthy told The Associated Press by telephone from Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu state.

The six-foot rocky structures that have emerged in Mahabalipuram, 30 miles south of Madras, include an elaborately carved head of an elephant and a horse in flight. Above the elephant’s head is a small square-shaped niche with a carved statue of a deity. Another structure uncovered by the tsunami has a reclining lion sculpted on it.

Interesting.

Bush nearly triples request for tsunami relief (Cox)

President Bush said yesterday he would ask Congress for $950 million for tsunami relief, nearly tripling U.S. aid pledged for victims of the monstrous seismic wave that swept the Indian Ocean in December. The beefed-up aid proposal, to be part of a supplemental budget request to go to Congress later this week, includes money to cover emergency relief efforts as well as new funding to help rebuild bridges, roads, schools and housing destroyed in a natural disaster that took some 150,000 lives.

In a statement, Bush said the money would help restore communities and rebuild “vital infrastructure that re-energizes economies and strengthens societies” in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and other countries that bore the brunt of the tsunami’s wrath.

US plans $400m reward for allies (BBC)

US President George W Bush is asking Congress for $400m (£215m) to reward a number of countries that sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. A White House spokesman said the money would “assist nations which have taken political and economic risks”. The fund is part of a $80bn war funding request President Bush will send to Congress next week. [...] Poland, for instance, which has 2,500 troops in Iraq, will receive $100m. [...] The fund, called the Solidarity Initiative, will benefit countries “promoting freedom around the world”, Mr McClellan said in a statement. [...] Officials declined to say which other nations would benefit, but there has been suggestion that the fund will help to Eastern European nations, such as Ukraine, Hungary, Romania and the Baltic states.

These funds are going to good causes but one wonders how profligate our spending would be were we not experiencing record (in raw numbers, not real dollars or percentage of GDP) budget deficits.

With the supposedly “stingy” response of affluent nations occupying the media’s attention during the tsunami relief efforts, other issues have been sidelined. For instance, what have developing countries done? The Washington Post provides one answer by looking at Indian contributions:

India Takes Major Role In Sri Lanka Relief Effort

Those trends [economic liberalization, improved relations with the United States, and transformation into a donor nation] converged in shaping India’s response to the tsunami. Although the waves caused immense damage to coastal areas in India, where more than 10,000 people died, the Indian government not only turned down offers of outside assistance but also dispatched ships and aid to Sri Lanka and the nearby Maldives, as well as to Indonesia. In addition, it has pledged $23 million for reconstruction in Sri Lanka.

“There was a spontaneous desire on the part of India to help,” said Nirupama Rao, the Indian ambassador to Sri Lanka, who had been vacationing in India when she received a telephoned plea for assistance from Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse within hours of the disaster. Moreover, Rao added, “We had the resources and the capability to effect that kind of response.”

The Indian government’s response to the disaster on its own soil, by most accounts, was reasonably effective, particularly in Tamil Nadu state, which suffered the largest number of Indian casualties. By the second day of the disaster, the army was busy collecting bodies, running medical camps and building shelters. The military also has played a big role in the heavily damaged — and strategically sensitive — Andaman and Nicobar Islands, although Indian authorities have been criticized for barring foreign relief organizations from the area on security grounds.

The Post characterizes these actions as assertions of geopolitical power. One might think that regional rivals, especially Pakistan, would be alarmed, since the military is involved. But, apparently, the response has been decent:

In a reflection of India’s warming relations with the United States, both governments agreed after high-level contacts — including a Dec. 29 conversation between Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh — to pool their military assets with those of Australia and Japan in response to the disaster.

Although coordination of relief efforts was subsequently ceded to the United Nations, India and its partners in the aid operation have continued to coordinate closely. Berry, the Indian defense attaché, has been holding daily meetings with his American counterpart as well as defense attaches from other countries involved in the relief effort, including, on occasion, Pakistan, which has sent medical specialists and other forms of assistance to Sri Lanka.

Even if the Pakistanis are concerned, it would probably be ill-advised for them to express much criticism. After all, the tsunami did reach India, so it’s fully invested in everyone’s recovery. At any rate, the article is generally encouraging.

After Tsunami’s Rampage, Looters’ Market Is on a Roll [RSS] (NYT)

Business is coming back to Banda Aceh, a city hit hard by the tsunami, and not all of it fits into neat moral boxes. On Diponegoro Street, at what was once the commercial heart of this city, a muddy man named Husnaidi, 30, picked through the debris ejected from the shops first by the tsunami and then by the looters. He knew that what he took – mostly bits of metal and plastic he could sell as scrap – was not his. But he said he had no choice in order to survive after the wave carried away his home, his wife, his only child. “If I could not collect these things, I don’t know what I would do,” he said.

Down the street, a merchant worked to empty his clothing shop of everything that was salvageable, before the looters finished the job for him. He was only partly sympathetic. “The owners may still be alive,” said the merchant, Nasruddin, 28, who like many people here has only one name. “Why are people looting? Just because they don’t have a home doesn’t give them the right to steal.”

The wave that changed so much here has also changed economic life, and in complicated ways. Scrap dealers are thriving, as people rifle through rubble often only just before bulldozers remove the mucky debris forever. A market stall in the devastated city of Meulaboh, south of here, sells scrounged household goods like pots and pans. Landlords are demanding wildly inflated rents from the rich army of foreign aid workers and journalists.

***

Such moral difficulties here these days were on display at a roadside scrap shop not far from the police station. A man named Sulaiman, 39, who said he lost 7 of his 13 immediate relatives, including his mother and several siblings, offered a scrap dealer an iron gate that he said once protected his motorcycle repair shop. Mr. Sulaiman said he would never pick up something that was not his. “It shouldn’t be forgiven,” he said. “We have already been through a disaster, and people are making another disaster” by selling other people’s property, he said. The scrap dealer, Ibrahim, offering about $7 for the gate, chimed in. “It’s forbidden,” he said, using a word that connotes a sin against Islam.

Sad, but hardly surprising. Looting follows natural disasters, power outages, and even sports championships even in the wealthy United States.

I’ve already discussed the Rice hearing below, but I think that the following issue deserves its own post.

Before Senator Boxer criticized the Iraq War, she lectured the nominee (emphasis added):

Transcript: Confirmation Hearing of Condoleeza Rice (NYT)

And if you’re going to become the voice of diplomacy, this is just a helpful point. When Senator Voinovich mentioned the issue of tsunami relief, you said — your first words were The tsunami was a wonderful opportunity for us. Now, the tsunami was one of the worst tragedies of our lifetime, one of the worst, and it’s going to have a 10-year impact on rebuilding that area. I was very disappointed in your statement. I think you blew the opportunity. You mentioned it as part of one sentence. And I would hope to work with you on this, because children are suffering; we’re worried they’re going to get in the sex trade. This thing is a disaster — a true natural disaster and a human disaster of great proportions. And I hope that the State Department will take a huge lead under your leadership in helping those folks in the long range.

I might be overlooking something here, but I sure can’t find the statement to which Boxer referred. Here’s the Voinovich exchange in full (emphasis added):

LUGAR: Thank you very much, Senator Feingold. Senator Voinovich?

VOINOVICH: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I’d like to publicly thank Secretary Powell and Secretary Armitage for the outstanding — and their team for the outstanding job that they’ve done for this country during the last four years. I’d like to thank you, also, for being willing to come before us to seek confirmation as secretary of state of the United States of America. I couldn’t help but think, as I have heard my colleagues ask questions here today, the enormous responsibilities that you’re taking on in terms of the world. There’s no country in the world where a foreign minister is being asked questions about the whole world. And you’re being asked questions about the whole world. And what are you going to do? And I’d like to share with my colleagues that one of the things that we all ought to be concerned about is whether or not the new secretary of state is going to have the budget and the human capital that she is going to need to get the job done.

VOINOVICH: Are we going to prioritize, in terms of this nation, the money necessary so that many of the questions that have been asked here at this table about, What are you going to do about this, and what are you going to be doing about that? are going to be — we’re going to be able to do something about it, and at the same time, maybe look at our own tax policy, and give consideration to what Senator Sarbanes has been talking about, the trade deficit that’s looming and the account deficit.

And I’m very happy to hear that Bob Zoellick is interested in coming over, because Bob’s got tremendous background in the area of trade, which I think is essential to almost everything that you’ll be doing.

I was glad also, in your testimony you said that, More than ever, America’s diplomats will need to be active in spreading democracy, fighting terror, reducing poverty and doing our part to protect the American homeland. I will personally work to ensure that America’s diplomats have the tools they need to do their jobs, from training to budgets to mentoring to embassy security.

We expect you to come here before this committee and give us what you think you need to get the job done. And I think it’s your job to advocate to the administration about what it is you need to get the job done. We’ve got to be real.

You’ve dealt with a lot of the major issues that are on everyone’s mind. But I think you know I have a particular interest in Southeast Europe, where I spent probably more time than any member of the Foreign Relations Committee. And we’ve made some progress there.

We’ve gotten rid of Milosevic. We’ve gotten rid of Tudjman. Stjepan Mesic just got reelected president of Croatia. Slovenia has joined NATO and the E.U. And there’s some real progress being made.

But I am very concerned about what’s going on in Serbia- Montenegro today. I’m very concerned about what’s happening in Kosovo. Because I really believe that, unless things are stabilized in Serbia-Montenegro and we stabilize things in Kosovo, that we could very well have another crisis on your hands this year, particularly because we’re discussing the final status of Kosovo, what’s going to be happening there.

I’d like to say that Mark Grossman has done a good job. I’d like to know, where is that on your priority list? And are you familiar with it? And what do you — you know, we’ve got our NATO forces over there.

RICE: And so I think we have to have a new, renewed effort on that piece of it, getting our message out. We also have to have a new, renewed effort on getting our people back and forth. Because people, when they come to the United States and see who we are and can get past some of the filter of perhaps some of the sides of America that are not well-liked or respected, I think do come away with a different view of us. And so I will have a strong emphasis on getting our message out, on getting the truth to people, on diminishing the — on doing something to mitigate against the propaganda that’s out there against us, but also on going to our long-time partners and friends, and saying, We have a common purpose here, a great cause ahead of us. And the trans-Atlantic alliance, you know, sometimes it’s a little bit like whatever it was that Mark Twain said about Wagner’s music. I think he said it’s better than it sounds. Well, in fact, our trans-Atlantic alliances are really better than people give us credit for. We’re cooperating in a lot of places. We’re working hard together in a lot of places. We’ve had a lot of successes. But we can do more in this period of tremendous opportunity to unify the great democracies, the great alliances for a push to spread freedom and liberty. I think it’s an agenda that is inspiring. And I think we’ve done a lot already, but there is much more that we can do.

VOINOVICH: Thank you.

LUGAR: Thank you very much, Senator Voinovich. Senator Boxer?

Contrary to Boxer, Voinovich never brought up the tsunami. Indeed, he devoted his question to Southeast Europe, and Rice’s discussion of the “tremendous opportunity” related to democracy promotion and trans-Atlantic ties.

I scanned the transcript for every reference to “tsunami,” “disaster,” “Asia,” “India,” and “opportunity.” I found nothing incriminating. The only time that Rice opened her statement by invoking “opportunity” was here (emphasis added):

RICE: We all believe, and most especially the president, that we have a really good opportunity here, given the election of a new Palestinian leader, and given the Israeli Gaza withdrawal plan, which is linked to the West Bank through the four settlements that would be dismantled in the West Bank as well. We think this is a moment of opportunity. That means that there is going to have to be engagement at all levels. I expect, myself, to spend an enormous amount of effort on this activity. I can’t substitute for the parties and their willingness to take on their responsibilities, and that’s the message that we have to keep sending. We’ve had to note that how hard this road is going to be was in evidence during this last few days. And we’ve pressed very hard for the Palestinians to take on terrorism because we’re not going to get very far if there is terrorism from the Palestinian militants. But you can be sure that we will have very active engagement because we think this is a time of responsibility. I think I need to, for the time being, demure on the question of a special envoy. No one has objections in principle to the idea of an envoy, but it is a question of whether that is appropriate to a particular point in time in the process that we’re involved in.

The only time that Rice mentioned “tsunami” was here (emphasis added):

RICE: Yet when judging a course of action, I will never forget that the true measure of its worth is its effectiveness. Our second great task is to strengthen the community of democracy so that all free nations are equal to the work before us. Free peoples everywhere are heartened by the success of democracy around the globe. Together, we must build on that success. We face many challenges. In some parts of the world, an extremist view threatens the very existence of political liberty. Disease and poverty have the potential to destabilize whole nations and whole regions. Corruption can sap the foundations of democracy. And some elected leaders have taken illiberal steps that if not corrected could undermine hard-won progress for democracy. We must do all that we can to ensure that nations which make the hard choices and do the hard work to join the free world deliver on the high hopes of those citizens for better lives. From the Philippines to Colombia to the nations of Africa, we are strengthening counterterrorism cooperation with nations that have a will to fight terror, but need help with the means. We’re spending billions to fight AIDS and tuberculosis and malaria and other diseases, to alleviate suffering for millions and help end public health crises. America has always been generous in helping countries recover from natural disasters and today we are providing money and personnel to ease the suffering of the millions afflicted by the tsunami and to help rebuild those nations’ infrastructure. We are joining with developing nations to fight corruption, instill the rule of law and create a culture of transparency. In much of Latin America and Africa, we face the twin challenges of helping to bolster democratic change while alleviating poverty and hopelessness. We will work with reformers in those regions who are committed to the increasing opportunity for their peoples and we will insist that leaders who are elected democratically have an obligation to govern democratically. Our third great task is to spread democracy and freedom throughout the world. I spoke earlier of the grave setbacks to democracy in the first half of the 20th century. The second half of the century saw an advance of democracy that was far more dramatic.

Again, there didn’t seem to be anything about the natural disaster worth blasting.

Perhaps the transcript is off; we should always keep this possibility in mind, since transcribers are imperfect. Perhaps I’m missing an important part: if you find Boxer’s reference, please inform me, and I’ll post an update.

But if there is, in fact, no such statement, then I can understand why Rice said: “I would hope that we can have this conversation and discuss what happened before and what went on before and what I said, without impugning my credibility or my integrity.”

Update: Commenter Bill K provides a link to this Agence France Presse dispatch, which quotes Rice:

Tsunami Relief Provided “Wonderful Opportunity” for US: Rice

“I do agree that the tsunami was a wonderful opportunity to show not just the US government, but the heart of the American people, and I think it has paid great dividends for us,” she said.

Scripps Howard News Service has the same quotation.

But, as of 7:12 p.m. eastern, it’s nowhere in the FDCH e-Media transcript used by the NYT. Both the NYT [RSS] and the Washington Post stories mention the Boxer exchange, though they have nothing on the tsunami statement.

At this point, I’m as confused as you probably are. My inclination is to side with the transcript, since it’s attempted to capture the entire hearing in full — not simply pick quotations — but, again, it could be wrong.

Update: Like the NYT and WaPo, the LA Times covers the Boxer exchange but has nothing on the tsunami. The AP’s collection of quotations doesn’t have it, either, though it isn’t meant to be exhaustive.

Final Update: See the comments below for articles that have the quotation. As of 1:15 a.m. eastern, January 19, the transcript still doesn’t have it. I’m resigned to confusion.

If there can be a silver lining at all in Southern Asia, perhaps the New York Times has identified part of it:

Why Stock Markets Stayed Calm in Southern Asia [RSS]

Natural disasters often provoke sharp stock market declines where they occur, usually followed by recoveries that are almost as intense. Ten years ago this week, the Kobe earthquake in Japan sent stocks there tumbling 5 percent before they snapped back.

The Sri Lankan market followed a similar path after a tsunami struck on Dec. 26, but it was the exception. Despite the huge devastation, other markets in southern Asia had no big gyrations, and ended the ensuing week flat to higher.

The bonds of the affected countries, as well as their currencies – which can be volatile even in benign circumstances – suffered few ill effects, either.

“The stock markets in the region have generally not been impacted by the disaster and, in fact, have behaved differently than expected,” said Mark Mobius, manager of the Templeton Global Emerging Markets fund, in a note to investors. Markets in Indonesia and India ended the trading week after the tsunami more than 1 percent higher, while the Thai and Malaysian markets were little changed. Sri Lanka’s market fell sharply immediately after the disaster, then got most of the lost ground back later, ending the week down about 4 percent. In the month ended Friday, stocks rose in all these countries except for India; for American investors, returns were higher in all five countries because their currencies rose against the dollar.

Paul Niven, head of strategy at F&C Asset Management, a fund management company in London, pointed out that many Asian stock markets have continued to rally this year. “Such behavior may seem odd at a time of such unprecedented disaster across numerous countries,” Mr. Niven said, “but it does appear that markets are behaving entirely rationally.”

He and other investment professionals say there was no widespread selling because the tsunami damage, though extending for thousands of miles along the Indian Ocean’s rim, had negligible impact on industrial capacity. It may seem perverse when juxtaposed with the immense loss of life, analysts say, but the disaster may even produce economic and commercial benefits as rebuilding begins.

Of course, the tsunami had such a devastating impact partly because the coastal areas were underdeveloped. The last section of the article addresses this issue:

In the long run, he said, the tsunami may help strengthen Asian economies and markets because “rebuilding takes place with more modern buildings and equipment, so it raises capabilities” of manufacturers in the affected economies.

The tsunami is “a forced way to modernize,” Mr. Chan said. When local companies build homes, factories and infrastructure, “there will be a lot of expert advice to guide them,” he said.

“All of that,” he added, “is going to enhance productivity and the productive capacity of the region.”

Russell Berman of the Hoover Institution makes a couple of good points that I’d like to synthesize:

Lessons Learned from the Tsunami (The Stanford Daily)

As the toll from the tsunami continues to mount, it has become clear that this catastrophe was also a political turning point. No governments may have fallen, but some deeply held political myths and beliefs have not been able to withstand the force of the tidal wave that changed the world.

First and foremost, the myth of Islamic solidarity has been shattered. Even though most victims in Indonesia, the most populous Islamic country on the face of the earth, are Muslim, the support flowing from Arab governments has been pitifully small. The decades of petrodollars and the years of high gas prices have apparently not put the oil-rich Middle East in a position to afford to offer much help to Muslims in distress.

But as Islamic victims receive support from the non-Islamic world, the already dubious claim that the general opinion of Muslims in the Middle East might be predisposed to rise up against the West becomes simply untenable.

In the face of a real disaster, neither the fundamentalists nor the Baathists nor the anticolonialists have done much at all. In contrast, the energy of the Western relief effort is likely to put a deep dent in the anti-Western — and especially anti-American — propaganda of the Islamicists.

Second, the generosity of the developed world has been considerable, especially from such regional neighbors as Japan and Australia but also from the United States and Europe. The tendentious suggestion that the United States was “stingy” failed to note that the “old European” powers initially proposed relatively low offers of aid as well. Only as the real extent of the disaster became clear did these amounts grow to many times their original size.

When the Bush administration made its first commitment, critics argued that, by pledging at such a low level, it missed a golden opportunity to show genuine good will towards the Muslim world. I thought that some of these criticisms went too far, but the general point was taken: given our current foreign-policy priorities, perhaps we should have erred on the side of magnanimity.

On the other hand, we can probably say that the Muslim world missed a golden opportunity, as well. It could have shown up the “stingy” United States as it helped needy victims, but it apparently punted. In the long run, that might matter a great deal more than the administration’s starting point.

Indonesia Sets Deadline for Foreign Troops (AP)

Indonesia announced that U.S. and other foreign troops providing tsunami disaster relief must leave the country by the end of March and ordered aid workers Wednesday to declare their travel plans or face expulsion from devastated Aceh province on Sumatra island. The government’s moves highlight its sensitivities over a foreign military operation in this country — albeit a humanitarian one — and underscore its efforts to regain control of Aceh province, the scene of a decades-old conflict between separatist rebels and federal troops accused of human rights abuses.

The latest restrictions placed on the international presence came as the aircraft carrier leading the U.S. military’s tsunami relief effort steamed out of Indonesian waters Wednesday after the government declined to let the ship’s fighter pilots use its airspace for training missions. The USS Abraham Lincoln’s diversion was not expected to affect aid flights, however. U.S. Marines have also scaled back their plans to send hundreds of troops ashore to build roads and clear rubble. The two sides reached a compromise in which the Americans agreed not to set up a base camp on Indonesia or carry weapons. Instead, the Marines — some 2,000 of whom were diverted to tsunami relief from duty in Iraq — will keep a “minimal footprint” in the country, with most returning to ships at night, said Col. Tom Greenwood, commander of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

9.0 on ungrateful scale — Thanks for the help, but now get out, Indonesian veep tells U.S. soldiers (Corky Siemazko, New York Daily News)

Ingrates!

The Indonesian government yesterday showed its appreciation to U.S. soldiers who have been risking their lives helping tsunami victims by ordering them to get out of the country by the end of March. “Three months are enough,” Vice President Jusuf Kalla told the official Antara news agency. “In fact, the sooner [they leave] the better.”

Kalla’s government also forced the Abraham Lincoln, from which Navy pilots have flown dozens of food supply missions to the hard-hit Aceh Province, to steam out of Indonesian waters because they refused to let U.S. pilots fly training missions in their air space. The Indonesians also refused to let the Marines coming ashore rebuild roads, establish a base camp or carry arms.

Lynn Pascoe, the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, reacted to Kalla’s ingratitude by declaring that American troops will help as long as they were needed and “not a minute later.” But in Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan demanded “further clarification from Indonesia about what this means.”

This shouldn’t be surprising, I suppose. Politics tends to trump all in these situations and having Western troops bailing their people out–again– out highlights the incompetence of the local government. The government likely has not forgotten the recent troubles in East Timor, where Western, especially Australian, troops thwarted the government’s attempts to suppress an independence movement. Still, this is rather mindboggling amidst the generosity and goodwill that the natural disaster evoked.