Who Your Allies Are

Here's a little bit of what allies do and do not do in a crisis.

1. ALLIES do support other countries in a time of war.

2. ALLIES do not veto actions used to preserve lives and prevent future wars.

3. ALLIES send humanitarian aid and aid workers along with their troops, after the shooting has subsided.

4. ALLIES do not become embroiled in a Food for Oil Program, in which humanitarian aid and money is taken and used for money and a skim is paid for the UN and other nations to look the other way.

5. ALLIES keep their troops in, as long as they can.

6. ALLIES do not scurry off like rabbits at the first sign of trouble.

7. ALLIES help in rebuilding wrecked and fresh nations.

8. ALLIES do not withhold aid and then expect oil revenue and special treatment after the dirty work and rebuilding is done.

9. ALLIES are people like Prime Ministers Tony Blair, Ichiro Koizumi, John Howard, and Silvio Berlusconi, also Presidents Kwasniewski, Aznar, Lee, and others.

10. ALLIES are not Presidents Vladimir Putin, Jacques Chirac, Zapetro, or Zhiang, NOR Chancellor Gehrhard Schroeder.

11. ALLIES are now the smaller lands and developing countries once behind the Iron Curtain or part of a free world.

12. ALLIES are not the former superpowers of Western Europe and Russia or Asia.

In short, our allies are a coalition of the willing and appreciated, NOT a bunch of willing sideliners and bribe takers.