From Aid Effort in Indonesia Could Lift U.S. Image in Eyes of Muslims:
U.S. foreign assistance has only a mixed record in winning friends for Washington. Massive American aid to Germany and Japan after World War II created lasting alliances. But the U.S. saw no warming in bilateral relations with Iran, a country it considers a sponsor of terrorism, after it provided $5.7 million in medical aid, search-and-rescue support, blankets and other supplies for the victims of the Bam earthquake in December 2003. American food aid to North Korea during floods and famine there in 1997 came at a time when bilateral relations were the least frosty in decades, but the detente didn’t last far into the Bush administration.Nor is it a sure thing that a surge in pro-American sentiments will stick once the relief work is done, any more than pro-American sympathies lasted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Suspicion of the U.S. remains high among some Indonesian Muslim leaders. And progress in Indonesia might be difficult to translate into improved perceptions among Muslims in the broader Arab world. Arab newspapers have devoted little space to the disaster overall, and even less to the Western-led aid efforts.
The U.S. has offered $350 million in aid:
The U.S. isn’t the only country that could gain more influence through its largesse. Japan, for one, has offered as much as $500 million in aid and has sent ships to assist in relief efforts in Indonesia and Thailand. Substantial sums have been pledged by the United Kingdom, Sweden and Spain, among others.Still, the biggest nation in the region, China, has pledged only $60 million in aid despite its regional ambitions, in addition to sending a few medical teams to several of the battered countries. And oil-rich Arab countries haven’t jumped in strongly so far, though Saudi Arabia yesterday boosted an initial pledge of $10 million to $30 million, and said officials would sponsor a fund-raising telethon on Saudi television tomorrow.