Mr Thammasaroj says the United States must take some of the blame for the number of casualties. He believes that if the Hawaii-based Pacific tsunami warning centre had acted quickly enough many lives could have been saved.
“I’m not angry at them for failing to warn Thailand, because at that time they did not know for sure, they merely said a tsunami was possible after the earthquake,” he said .But after the giant waves hit southern Thailand the centre had more than an hour to alert India, Bangladesh and the Maldives, “and if they warned those countries, they could have saved thousands of lives.
“It’s their failure to do so that makes me mad at them,” said Mr Thammasaroj.
Workers at the Hawaii centre have said they tried in vain to warn Indian Ocean countries about the possible effects of the earthquake, but they were not equipped to monitor that part of the world and did not even have phone numbers for the right officials.
Discuss- I am verklempt. And this isn’t just some idiot who knows nothing- this is the newly appointed minister for natural disasters in Thailand. He knows better that there was nothing that could be done, yet blames us anyway. It’s like he has been hanging out with Andrew Sullivan or something.
M. Scott Eiland
CYA is a language that knows no international barriers–this guy is probably looking at a pink slip and a good long period as a pariah in his home country. I’m consequently inclined to cut him a bit more slack than I would the typical anti-American foreigner idiot who blames the U.S. for something it has precisely no responsibility for. Just a little bit more, though.
Tongueboy
Additionally, Mr. Thammasaroj exhibits a common characteristic of America-bashers, an almost infantile belief in America’s omniscient powers. Obviously, America is the big daddy who can do *anything* (gazes up in awestruck wonder) so when things don’t go as Mr. Thammasaroj expects, he naturally blames the big daddy who stood by and *didn’t* *do* *nothin’* (big foot stomp afer each highlighted word).
AndrewBB
Not that we encourage that belief or anything TB. Nah, we just call our presidents “leader of the free world.”
:-(