Australians can be rightly proud of their government's generous

Australians can be rightly proud of their government's generous
commitment to Indonesia's recovery from the tsunami.

This is a new level of co-operation and goodwill between
Australia and its closest neighbor. It also demonstrates how far
relations between the two have improved in a very short time.

It was only three years ago that President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono's predecessor, Megawati Soekarnoputri, famously refused
to take John Howard's call when the Prime Minister rang to talk
about the Tampa crisis.

To realize just how much things have changed, try to imagine
the insular Megawati sharing such a role - any role - with an
Australian leader. Yudhoyono is, of course, a leader of a very
different stripe. With the authority conferred by a background in
the military, he is, as well, Western-educated and outward-
looking. From the outset, his presidency has offered
unprecedented opportunities for upgrading relations between
Indonesia and Australia.

Accordingly, the Prime Minister is right to focus most of our
aid on Indonesia, instead of fragmenting it. Arguably, our
greatest obligation is, in any event, to our nearest neighbor.

No amount of aid can ever provide adequate solace for those
who have been lost, but a new partnership between Australia and
Indonesia would be a most fitting memorial.
-- The Sydney Morning Herald

Tsunami's global context

A natural disaster like the Indian Ocean tsunami does more than
tear away at the fabric of life in the afflicted region. It also
opens a window to other world problems.

After an outsized tragedy, people's hearts are often bigger
than their wallets.

Donors have deluged charities with tens of millions of
dollars, and nations have pledged more than US$1.6 billion to aid
tsunami victims. But history shows that governments don't always
keep their promises, and even the best relief campaigns lose
steam.

After an earthquake killed 30,000 in the Iranian city of Bam
in December 2003, relief poured in. Now, a year later, streets
are still hidden under tons of rubble, and many survivors are in
tents or boxlike pre-fab houses.

Since January 2002, the world has pledged $5.2 billion for
Afghanistan's reconstruction. Today, only 75 percent of that
money has actually been committed by donors, according to New
York University's Center on International Cooperation. Private
charities usually do better, but no central authority tracks
their follow-through.

The best measure isn't money spent, but goals achieved: People
with permanent housing. Orphaned children with stable homes.
Families with real livelihoods.

For the sake of those suffering in South Asia, today's good
intentions mustn't recede as quickly as the waves of a tsunami.
-- USA Today

No Delay for Iraqi Elections

Every suicide bombing in Iraq these days brings new calls for a
postponement of national elections scheduled for Jan. 30. Those
demanding a delay are usually Sunni Muslims -- who've lost the
power they held under Saddam Hussein.

But the voices include well-wishers outside the country
worried that an election boycotted by a community accounting for
20 percent of the population would permanently cripple
representative government.

Delaying balloting for a 275-member interim national assembly
that will write an interim constitution and then yield to a
permanent legislature in another round of elections later in the
year would give terrorists the power to decide if or when
elections will be held. A delay would not guarantee that security
would improve; it could worsen. Nor would it ensure that Sunni
politicians would eventually participate; it might simply
embolden them to demand further delays. And a postponement would
let insurgents continue to rail against a government picked by
Washington.

The Bush administration points to a democratic Iraq as a
beacon for the Arab nations of the Middle East. That is a
laudable goal, but the imperative short-term need is to at least
establish a government in Baghdad that can claim some legitimacy
from Mosul to Basra, and that will make most Iraqis feel they
have regained their sovereignty.
-- LA Times, Los Angeles