In the last week, the United States has yet again come under attack. We’re not referring to one of the ongoing series of attacks on U.S. military troops stationed abroad; we’re referring to an unwarranted attack of words.

Last week, only hours after a massive earthquake and tsunami killed more than 150,000 and changed Southeast Asia forever, instead of worrying about the survivors, the United Nations, or at least one spokesperson for the group, felt it was the proper time to take a jab at the United States while the whole world was watching.

The head of the United Nations’ emergency relief agency referred to many of the wealthy western countries, such as the United States, as &uot;stingy&uot; when it comes to international aid.

Hardly. While the initial U.S. commitment may have &uot;seemed&uot; to be less than adequate, at the time the U.S. pledged its first $35 million, the news was just beginning to come in and the true scope of the tragedy had yet to be fully understood.

As details and the massive nature of the disaster have become clear, the U.S. has gone back and revised the pledge for donation more than tenfold.

We think they simply take the U.S. and its wallet for granted. The U.N. should be very careful in doing so, especially given the U.N.’s sketchy leadership and questionable effectiveness in the wake of mass corruption in the Iraq oil-for-food program.

What’s interesting in the U.N.’s criticism of the U.S. is that the United Nations seems to overlook the generosity of rank and file Americans. Our country’s citizens are among the world’s most generous.

Look no further than the individual efforts to help raise funds for tsunami relief. Online retailer Amazon added a plea for aid to its Web site. By Saturday, Amazon had collected more than $11 million in donations to aid in the disaster.

The U.S. military has been airlifting disaster relief supplies since the beginning of the crisis.

The U.N. needs to quickly learn the old saying, &uot;don’t bite the hand that feeds you.&uot; If it doesn’t learn that lesson — quickly — perhaps they’ll learn how stingy the U.S. can actually be when it cuts off cash to the U.N.