Earthquakes, militarism, and memory

The earthquake in Haiti is more tragedy for an already tragic country, and international aid (with and without automatic weapons at the ready) is beginning to pour in. Estimates of deaths are anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000+. While the outpouring of aid and support is clearly a good thing, I have to wonder how quickly Americans will forget about this, the way we forget about most disasters outside our borders.

Quick: what the last natural disaster that caused over 50,000 deaths? If you guessed the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China, you'd probably be right. 69,197 are confirmed dead, and more than 18,000 remain missing.

But did you remember the 2005 2005 Kashmir earthquake that caused an estimated 79,000 deaths, and left more than 3 million people homeless?

I really don't mean to minimize the deaths and suffering in Haiti. Though if I were Haitian, I'd be a little concerned about the relief personnel from the United States being so heavily military, including the 82nd Airborne, a Marine expeditionary force, and the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. Let's not forget that the US occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934, or that this isn't the first time in recent memory that the 82nd Airborne has been knocking on Haiti's door, or even the first time this decade US Marines have dropped by.

Rather, the point which I'm making (probably somewhat poorly) is how quick we are to forget mass deaths when they are outside of our borders. We certainly haven't forgotten Hurricane Katrina, where 1,836 died and 700+ remain missing; we haven't forgotten September 11, where 2,992 died. Again, not to diminish the suffering in those events, but consider the relative scale.

It's a little like the American public getting all freaked out about 3 deaths from E. coli tainted spinach, or West Nile Virus (for which annual US deaths peaked at 284 in 2002, and were 28 last year), while somehow forgetting that somewhere around 5,700 people die every day of HIV/AIDS (who happen to be largely located in sub-Saharan Africa.) Or that around 2,400 people die every day from malaria (who happen to be largely located in sub-Saharan Africa.)

How long will it take before we forget Haiti again?

And aren't there better ways of assisting countries in need than combat troops?