Fg Off K,
Clearly, you are a compassionate human being and I salute you for that. However, here in Baghdad there is no chance whatsoever of our insurgent mates calling a truce. So the Defence expenditure must go on until the fight is won...or....
This is one of the biggest natural major incidents of all time and the humanitarian response needs to be measured. There are a lot of people doing a lot of good out there but they are usually Non-Governmental Organizations with copious experience of this type of thing. We, on the other hand, have only a limited background of responding to this type of tragedy and if we were to bomb-burst out there it could complicate things. There are obvious things like FP to take into consideration and a shed load of UK mates with malaria and severe gastrointestinal disturbances does no good to the situation.
That said, we could aid the situation by providing logs sp or a hospital ship off the coast, and I believe that is what our US friends are doing.
To any guys likely to go to SE Asia, I wish you a safe trip - perhaps I will see you out there?!