Japan was third on the list, giving $126,906,097, and the United Kingdom was fourth, with donations totaling $109,247,050. Iran gave $40,000. The Saudi Kingdom gave $3,345,325 -- about the cost of one trip to Paris for the Crown Prince. And Kuwait, the OPEC fund and the Russian Federation gave nothing.
Those huge sacks of American wheat, corn, soybeans and legumes have been traversing the globe for more than 50 years, since Eisenhower signed the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954. Kennedy renamed it Food for Peace, and it has undergone numerous changes since. But the essential generosity of the American people has remained intact.
Whether it is a famine in Ethiopia, a civil war in the Balkans or Somalia, or genocide in Sudan, the United States is always the largest donor of food and other humanitarian relief.
Just one month ago, the United States negotiated with the Libyan regime to permit it to ferry food aid to Sudanese refugees in Chad by going through Libya. As the Voice of America explained: "Convoys of 40 trucks at a time, carrying American food aid, are being driven ... through southeastern Libya on their way to camps in Chad. They are part of a delivery of 6,540 tons of U.S. food aid destined to Sudanese refugees who have fled the fighting in the Darfur area."
In this season of peace, it is useful to remember that we live in a very generous and humanitarian country -- even if The New York Times does its best to obscure it.