Yes, I know that the equipment is in use in fighting terrorists, and that the troops are stretched thin…
…but it ought to be really, really bothersome that:
…the footsoldiers of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, one of Pakistan’s most prominent Islamic extremist groups, have been at the vanguard of the relief operation for the October 8 disaster.
One of the reasons the perception of the United States has risen in the Muslim world was out generous and rapid response to the tsunami.
Were we only as visibly rapid and generous now.Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis are homeless, starving, and freezing right now.
The U.S. contribution hasn’t been insubstantial:
Following are details on the material assistance that has been provided as of 4:30 PM EDT, October 12.
Emergency Relief Supplies:
* 10 Emergency Health Kits are scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on Friday, October 15. Each kit serves 10,000 people for three months.
* Two C-17 aircraft, four C-130 aircraft, one Mi-8 aircraft and one UC-35 aircraft arrived on October 12, carrying medical supplies, relief supplies, water, cots, doctors, and humanitarian assistance personnel.
* Two C-17s carrying relief supplies arrived on October 11.
* A IL-76 carrying initial USAID/OFDA relief supplies arrived on October 10, including 250 rolls of plastic sheeting – sufficient for approximately 2,500 families – 5,000 blankets, and 5,000 water containers.
* USAID/OFDA has allocated $9.3 million to the UN Consolidated Appeal Process s part of the initial $50 million contribute toward Pakistan relief.
* USAID/OFDA in Washington, DC has committed $1 million to be provided through the American Red Cross in response to a Preliminary Emergency Appeal issued by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. This was in addition to the $100,000 announced on October 10 by the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.Transportation Assets:
* Eight U.S. military helicopters now in country (five CH-47 Chinooks and three UH-60 Blackhawks) continue to deliver regular supplies of tents, medical supplies, water, meals ready-to-eat and other desperately needed relief supplies. The aviation task force has flown about 150 missions since arriving October 10, moving 250 people and 45,000 pounds of supplies and equipment. Some of the most severe damage from the earthquake has been sustained in remote areas not easily accessible by road.
* Heavy equipment such as bulldozers, dump trucks, and forklifts, and support systems, such as water purification systems, portable generators, and medical support are being dispatched from within the Central Command region.Emergency Management Assistance:
* Eight members of the nine-person Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) arrived in Islamabad on October 12. The team’s mission is to assess humanitarian needs, assist with targeting and coordination of U.S. assistance, and provide technical assistance as needed.
* A 23-member Contingency Support Group from McGuire Air Force Base arrived in Islamabad on October 12 and will be involved in planning and logistics support.
* Department of Defense announced on October 11 that Navy Rear Admiral Michael Lefever has been designated to coordinate the Disaster Assistance Center in Islamabad.
But it’s behind-the-scenes help with materiel and logistics; the kind of help that is vital, but often invisible.
I can well understand the security challenge of placing lots of boots on the ground in an environment like this.
But I can also see the massive and long-term win that we could generate – throughout the Muslim world – with the simple image of U.S. medics helping the wounded, U.S. uniforms distributing shelter.
The social-service arm of Hamas is the engine that drives it’s legitimacy. It ought to be our engine, not theirs. We should be better at this than they are.
>>The social-service arm of Hamas is the engine that drives it’s legitimacy. It ought to be our engine, not theirs. We should be better at this than they are.
Indeed. Let us create a foundation specializing in disaster relief that improves world-wide perception of U.S. citizens.
This doesn’t require an inefficent government bureaucracy using tax funds stolen at gunpoint masquerading as “charity”.
You’ve been had.
Consider the source. Is the Guardian known for its objective reporting? Since when do you link to the Guardian without vetting it for accuracy?
The original report – and I don’t remember if it was from Reuters or the AP but I do remember when it came off the wire – was clearly written to bolster the public image of Jamaat-ud-Dawa by a sympathizer. However, the original report contained alot of details that the Guardian version has carefully editted out, namely the exact ammount of aid actually provided by the JuD.
That turned out to be food and shelter for about (IIRC) 1,000 people. Considering that there are an estimated 2,000,000 people homeless as result of the Kashmiri quake, this is insubstantial and hardly “the vanguard of the relief operation”. In fact, its probably scarcely more than aid to the families and friends of the organization. What JuD has been successful at doing is getting into the vangaurd of press coverage of the quake crisis. The original wire story will no doubt be spun in Muslim countries as proof the JuD is just a bunch of good souls seeking to do the will of Allah, and the fact that it is from a Western infidel press agency will only bolster that claim. “See, even the infidels recognize the good deeds of our Mujahadeen…blah blah blah.”
It depends on the source, A.L. In some circles, the US response is indeed being cast as rapid and generous. Last week on TV5 (int’l French-language network) I caught a Belgian news broadcast, and during roughly half of the report on quake relief, there were either American aircraft or American military personnel on camera. Two of them were interviewed. It left the impression that the United States was a (maybe the) major force on the ground, along with the Pakistani military.
Interesting how different the story is depending on who’s telling it.
As an American citizen, I’m just about disaster’d out — one disaster over the line, so to speak. It seems like it’s been one appeal to my pocket (and my emotions) after another since the tsunami last December. If it’s not an earthquake or a forest fire or a hurricane, it’s some little girl in Iraq who needs heart surgery. Or a whole entire city mushing through their flooded streets where we’re supposed to feel individual compassion for every single one of those poor people who chose to live under sea level in a hurricane path.
And then there’s the issue of *who* this particular disaster happened to. Frankly, I know that Pakistan is supposed to be our ally, but they have *NOT* been behaving as a good ally should, and therefore I’m not inclined to go out of my way to help them. Certainly as either a citizen or a voter I’m not going to be writing letters to my congress-people to ship stuff to Pakistan because they’ve been so deserving.
I mean, they’ve been hosting bin Laden for the past four years, for God’s sake, and now we’re supposed to BUY our way into their stony little hearts with charity?
Then there’s that whole Muslim thing, with the ones who aren’t actively trying to blow up American ululating in joy when one of their compadres manages to produce an exploded Yank. Or a beheaded one. And the multiple gang rapes of women … just not the sort of people I really want to go out of my way to contribute towards the welfare and comfort of.
Nope. I think I’ll pass on this one, both as a donor and a voter. For once, the right thing to do might be to take notice of whether or not the folks we are thinking about helping have been behaving like pond scum. And if they have been, then maybe they should be *treated* like pond scum. That we should grant them the respect of expecting them to take responsibility for their own actions, and since their actions haven’t been wonderful towards America, then why is it demanded that America step forward to save them from their own ignorance and depravity?
Maybe not as effective as images of “U.S. medics helping the wounded, U.S. uniforms distributing shelter,” AL, but “how about bags of food marked USA”:http://alphabetcity.blogspot.com/2005/10/us-does-heavy-lifting-in-pakistan.html?
Condi Rice was saying in her meeting with Mushariff that like 25 more helecopters were on the way, in addition to other aid.
No kidding, Pakistan won’t let our troops cross the border to chase terrorists, but we’re supposed to bend over backwards to send aid. They suck.
We helped Muslims by kicking Iraq out of Kuwait and keeping them out of Saudi. We got Osama for our pains.
We sent aid to Somalia. We got dead Marines dragged through the streets of Mogadishu.
We saved Muslim lives in the Balkans. Bosnia is now a Eurabian terrorist incubator.
It’s just a matter of time before an Indonesian _mujahedin_ attacks us for daring to send tsunami aid.
I’m all for advancing our interests by aiding these people, but I would want us to be damned sure that we get proper credit and that we get substantive benefits from our actions.
If all we’re getting for our efforts is a nice warm feeling in our tummies, followed by terrorist attacks, then to hell with it.
I agree with some of the other posters – do not expect our aid to Pakistan to have benefits in other arenas, such as the war on terror. Hell, India offered to send helicopters to the Pakistani-held portion of Kashmir, but Musharaff said he would take the Indian copters, but not the Indian pilots. After all, the sight of Indian pilots and Indian medics helping out would run counter to the decades of propoganda spewed by Pakistan – that India is waiting for a weak moment to strike and conquer Pakistan.
We should play hardball – we’ll help them, but they give our troops and Afghan allies permission to cross the border (a border that only we recognize, Al Qaeda is not stopped and asked for a visa).
Read “The Ugly American”:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393318672/104-6461200-8924719?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance by Lederer.
Also, that’s the region where bin Laden and associates are hiding, right? Where we have been having a lot of trouble getting access, right? Where we wouldn’t get cooperation from the ordinary people, right?
Exactly what’s the problem with bringing in a large number of American troops with food, shelter, medicine, and help for the needy? They can spread through the entire region, getting to know people, making friends, and keeping their eyes and ears open.
Doing good can have collateral benefits.
_Exactly what’s the problem with bringing in a large number of American troops with food, shelter, medicine, and help for the needy?_
The failure of the Pakistani government to approve such presence of US troops, for one thing.
And the likelihood that such troops would come under fire, threatening an open armed conflict involving our troops in that country — or a propaganda coup for the Taliban and the jihadis if we didn’t shoot back. It’s a no-win for us.
Al’s comment was correct. The problem is defining boots. The military keeps gettting the 911 call because the needs of a modern military require a large logistics and supply chain. Waht we need is public service organization along the lines City Year, the Peace Corps or AID structured to respond to disasters overseas; a Foreign FEMA if you will.
This allows a level of cooperation should a host country not want US military involvement. For those of you worried about intelligence gathering stop it always goes on. For security purposes the host can provide that as the military is ususally the organization w/ the resources to respond to natural disasters.
Quick aside on Hamas. Hamas was orginally organized by the Israeli’s as a coounterweight to Fatah in the very early 70’s. Unfortunately honesty and fanaticism are often inerconnected.
Might be worth a read on this topic.
http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/oct/21quake9.htm?q=tp&file=.htm
“‘The government will utterly fail to raise the orphans since it does not have the capacity. It is corrupt. Moreover, its social service credentials are abysmal. We would convince the government to let us do this job,’ adds Zafar.”
“‘I would like to share my personal feelings. I am so impressed with their unbiased relief work that I would never donate a single penny to any state agency. I would not hesitate to give my donations to the jihadis, particularly the Jamatud Dawa,’ says a UN relief worker who does not want to be named.”
We might soon be witnessing the next generation of global Jihadis coming to the fore. We would have to make a clear choice between what we really want Pakistan to do regarding the Jihadis and their training camps which it runs. It can’t keep being a ‘major ally’ on the war on terror and a ‘major backer’ of the Jihadi groups at the same time. The current US policies leave a lot of ambiguity which has probably made Pakistani generals think they can get away with anything, if they could get away with so much. Its not just the region which will suffer the consequences, but ultimately the Jihadis are really gunning for the US