Here's A Chance To Show The World Real America

We know it's coming. We can start mobilizing our resources now. We can show the Muslim world that Americans can walk the walk that they talk.

Indonesia volcano on "danger" status

By Tomi Soetjipto Sat May 13, 5:43 AM ET
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia raised the alert status of the Mount Merapi volcano to the highest level on Saturday, prompting a compulsory evacuation of thousands of residents living on the slopes, officials said.

"This morning we raised the status of Merapi to the top alert, which is the red code. Every resident has been ordered to evacuate," Subandrio, head of the Merapi section at the Center for Volcanological Research and Technology Development, told Reuters.

Residents said they could see lava flowing and thick smoke rising from Merapi, one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the Pacific "Ring of Fire" that has been rumbling for weeks.

"I could see the lava clearly from my home this morning. Then they ordered us to evacuate our village," said Anton, a 25-year-old resident of Boyong village, around 8 km (5 miles) from Merapi.

We fucked it up with the tsunami. We can do better. Want to bet Bush won't?

Why should we care?

Most Javanese, who make up the bulk of Indonesia's 220 million people, are Muslim, but many cling to a spiritual past and believe a supernatural kingdom exists on top of Merapi.

Get to emailing your Congresscritters and your Senators, and start the ball rolling on relief efforts, now. Turn the Lincoln and the Enterprise back from the Persian Gulf and steam them now to the Seventh Fleet to assist in Southeast Asia.

This is a whole lot more important than whether in ten years Iran will have a nuke. It just doesn't matter if we can persuade the rest of the Muslim world we mean no harm. They've forgotten the Serbo-Croatian salvation we did. They forgot how we saved millions of Muslims. We can do better here.