America is prepared to do the heavy lifting in Haiti, just as it has in Iraq, in the knowledge that it will not only be unappreciated, but denigrated

From the Daily Telegraph:

President Obama's ambition to improve the global image of the United States has some way to go if the response to America's aid operation in Haiti is anything to go by. Washington acted quickly and decisively within hours of the earthquake, mobilising its armed forces on a scale that no country in the world can match. "We have to be there for them in their hour of need," the President said.

This generous act of altruism has been greeted with extraordinary churlishness. America has been pilloried for not getting assistance to Haiti's people more quickly, as though the staggering logistical challenges posed by the disaster did not exist. It has been criticised for pouring in troops, yet without a strong security presence there was a danger of a descent into anarchy. And it has been vilified for daring to take a lead, in a country whose government is barely functioning, with Alain Joyandet, France's minister for "co-operation", levelling the ludicrous accusation that the US was "occupying" Haiti.

Such knee-jerk anti-Americanism is as predictable as it is depressing. Would the critics have preferred it if Washington had turned a blind eye? Of course not. It is to America's great credit that it is prepared to do the heavy lifting in Haiti, just as it has in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the knowledge that it will not only be unappreciated, but positively denigrated.

Compare this with the response to the disaster in the Arab states, where the US is so routinely reviled. Some of the poorest among them, such as Jordan and Lebanon, have sent assistance, as have the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. But Saudi Arabia, one of the world's wealthiest nations, has managed to send just a letter of condolence. As for Syria, which never misses an opportunity to denounce the iniquities of the Great Satan, it appears to have sent nothing at all.