Posted on 10/25/2001 11:02:12 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
A group of Afghan children collect packets of food aid after an U.S. aircraft completed a night time air drop over a refugee camp in Kumkishlyak in Northern Afghanistan, October 25, 2001. Afghanistan's ruling Taliban on Thursday dismissed as U.S. propaganda a Pentagon statement that they intended to poison food dropped by U.S. aircraft or provided by humanitarian groups to Afghan civilians. The Pentagon said on Wendesday that it had received information the Taliban may poison the food supplies to Afghan civilians and blame the United States. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko
An Afghan girl eats a box of bean salad after U.S. aircraft dropped food aid in a refugee camp in Kumkishlyak in northern Afghanistan, October 25, 2001. Two Afghan girls eat packets of strawberry jam after receiving food aid from U.S. air drops in a refugee camp in Kumkishlyak in Northern Afghanistan, October 25,2001.
I see those pictures as an attempt by the government to manipulate the feelings of people and to downplay the real cause of the war..This will do double duty because it will also help build public sentiment toward a division of Jerusalam..This is not christian charity this is political propaganda..
I have no problem feeding anyone that needs it..but why here and why now? You know the answer to that..if you read the links I posted you also know that Muslim men are out in force taking the packets meant for the women and children..
It is not wisdom to feed your enemy..scripture is not addressing National enemies..it is addressing personal ones..personal charity..not governmental...apolitical where there is no personal benefit to the giver.
Ask yourself why the Muslims in this link are not getting badly need food
The answer is there is no political payoff.....when there is a benefit to the giver it is not charity
This is a war..it is sad that people will die..but that is what happens in war..is this a just war? I don't know,but it is still war.
I have children in the military..this is very personal to me..I remember Nam where American soldiers offered chocolate to children..and the children blew our loving kids up with granades...
Think what you will of me Thomas..
These pictures were so clearly staged to touch the right nerves..so the adorable thing just got to me
I really am glad you got your kids and glad they are happy healthy little boys..and they are very blessed to be here in this country..
Again sorry..and if you have an opportunity go back up a few posts and look at the link Prodical daughter posted .Those muslim/christian kids are in real need..there is real starvation there..but no governmental food drops with pictures there..no political pay off.
There are so many starving in the world.Lets agree that we all need to do more to help,and please forgive my words of last night..
No I don't. Just in error about what the scriptures teach us.
nothing I can do about that
Yes you can. Stop seeing yourself as the final arbiter of the meaning of the scripture and listen to what your Christian brothers and sisters are saying.
I see those pictures ...This is not christian charity ...
Now who's judging?
I have no problem feeding anyone that needs it..but why here and why now?
A New Covenant obligation as a Christian. Figure it out.
It is not wisdom to feed your enemy
No, its Love. The love of Christ.
scripture is not addressing National enemies..it is addressing personal ones..personal charity..not governmental
Here you go again pontificating. National or personal doesn't matter. You seem to be conveniently interpreting scripture to fit your needs. It's subjective exegesis. I forget the theological term, but basicly its putting meaning into the scriptures that is not there. BTW, who do you think the government is. It's people. Thank God that the grand majority of Americans disagree with you on this. In fact, I haven't seen many on these threads that agree with you.
Think what you will of me Thomas
I think you've stepped in it, Mom, and don't know how to get out of it. HINT. Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord.
No they freep mail me..unwilling to take the hit I have taken..Americans are good people..the government has set up a wonderful propaganda tool ,one that will assist when they try to force the divison of Jerusalam....did you look at that link? Of couse not..
There are so many starving in the world.Lets agree that we all need to do more to help
Finally, something we can agree on.
And since when do children in a refugee camp in war in a tent have squeaky clean hair? And where's the burka?! I'm not convinced these children had to run from any Taliban, and I'm tired of being bombarded with photo manipulation business as usual by the press.
What about the drought these people had for three years, are we getting water to them? How are they eating without water? At least the photos might begin to look believable if they were drinking some water.
How are we supposed to write to these kids when they don't even have a post office. It's all getting ridiculous. I feel like I'm watching a movie.
113 million dollars we spent on aid to Afghanistan in year 2000.
U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PRESS RELEASE
WASHINGTON, DC 20523
PRESS OFFICE
http://www.usaid.gov
(202) 712-4320
2000-326
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, December 6, 2000
Contact: Gabrielle Bushman
WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced today it is sending $11.8 million in food aid to Afghanistan.
In response to an emergency appeal from the United Nations World Food Program, USAID announced it will provide 30,000 metric tons of wheat to Afghanistan. The food will be distributed to people affected by the drought throughout Afghanistan. The UN has estimated that 1.6 million have been affected.
"I am pleased to announce an additional $11.8 million in food aid for Afghanistan," said USAID's administrator, J. Brady Anderson. "We are monitoring the drought closely, and are assessing the needs of the people of Afghanistan on a continuing basis."
The announcement of the food aid brings USAID contributions to Afghanistan to $32.5 million for the year 2000. Of this, $25.7 million is emergency food aid. The remainder provides humanitarian assistance in the areas of health, water and sanitation, shelter, and distribution of critical relief commodities for vulnerable people in Afghanistan.
Total U.S. government assistance to Afghanistan, including the additional USAID contributions is $113.2 million for this year in response to growing humanitarian needs in the face of a severe drought. The United States is the largest single donor of assistance to Afghanistan.
The U.S. Agency for International Development is the U.S. government agency that provides development and humanitarian assistance worldwide.
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record
Instead of just office bureaucrats and politicians fighting the war without consulting the military at the front lines, like they did in Vietnam, now we have office bureacrats and politicians fighting the war against starvation and not consulting aids workers on the front lines. We lost Vietnam and we might lost this one if they don't forget about the egos and the photos ops.
I've seen photos of Afghan and other refugee camps, they have to line up three blocks long just to get a pail of water, and Afghanistan had a three year drought. Ever try to eat peanut butter without a drink of something?, you can choke. These people get water once a day if they're lucky. They don't open the refrigerator and pull out the kool-aid nor do they have a water hose. And as cleanly as the Afghans are, they don't have baby wipes and if they don't have water, they won't have clean hair in a geographical area of the world that looks like a dust bowl.
Remember those fines the so called journalists had to pay for staging phoney concentration camps in Kosovo? Yes, there's a problem of starvation and oppression in Afghanistan, but the media often influences public policy by exagerating one problem and suppressing another and enabling the government to waste our money only to aggravate the problem. It's a deadly combination.
The Daily Record and Sunday Mail
Scotland
Monday, October 15, 2001
US FOOD DROPS 'USELESS' FOR HUNGRY HORDES
AID agencies last night warned food drops to Afghanistan were doing more harm than good.
They said more than a million people faced starvation as refugees fleeing the Taliban were trapped between Allied bombs and the closed Pakistan border.
Glasgow-born Zia Choudhury, 29, humanitarian programme director for Oxfam, is in Islamabad, desperate to deliver food to the Afghans but unable to reach them.
He said: "It is extremely frustrating to be sitting here in the knowledge that things are getting worse every day and we are unable to do anything about it.
"Now we're facing a race against time to get enough food into Afghanistan to see them through the winter.
"If aid agencies are allowed to enter Afghanistan and the people trying to get into Pakistan are allowed over the border, we still have time to prevent a catastrophe. But I'm not hopeful we're going to be allowed to do that."
The Americans claim they have been trying to deliver aid to the country. More than 130,000 food parcels were dropped in the last week.
But Zia said: "Air drops have worked in other parts of the world but only as a last resort. In this situation, they are not effective and they are very expensive."
Other aid workers agreed, claiming many of the packages, which are dropped from a great height, have been scattered across Afghanistan's many minefields. Organisation of Mine Clearance and Afghan Rehabilitation spokesman Alhaj Fazel said: "When the food lands, these desperately hungry people will simply rush towards it. Women and children are most vulnerable."
A spokesman for French aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres added: "This is not a humanitarian effort, this is part of a military campaign designed to gather approval for the attacks. It is virtually useless and may even be doing harm."
Aid agencies said the food itself was of little use because it is totally unsuitable.
Most Afghans live on bread and rice and have never seen the kind of food in the parcels. They contain baked beans, beans in a tomato vinaigrette, peanut butter, strawberry jam, a biscuit, salt and pepper and a fruit bar.
None of the food meets strict Islamic requirements for food preparation.
And reports from the few aid workers left in the country say those who do eat it suffer digestive problems because their malnourished stomachs can't cope.
Zia Choudhury said: "Where air drops have been effective, they have been dropped on to a specific site where aid workers are in place to distribute it to those who most need it.
"We have worked out that this food costs 10 to 15 times more than the wheat and grain we would like to distribute in Afghanistan.
"The best thing would be to stop the air drops and open up two roads into Afghanistan so we can deliver food by truck. That way it will reach the people who need it most."
Some supplies are getting through. A convoy of 40 World Food Programme trucks with 1000 tons of food supplies left Peshawar on Wednesday.
Aid agencies believe they need to get 56,000 tons of food into Afghanistan in the next month if they are to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.
But the World Food Programme estimates that even if the borders were opened immediately, just 1800 tons could be moved in every day before the Afghan winter makes roads impassable.
They have almost 300,000 tons of aid ready to be moved from Iran and Pakistan.
Another problem for the aid agencies is the attitude of Afghans toward westerners. There are reports of aid workers being attacked by people who make no distinction between western charity workers and the people who are bombing their country.
Zia said: "This is something we encountered in Kosovo, too. When we arrived in our white vehicles, they thought we were the military.
"It takes a lot of hard work to convince people that we are there to help them. Some think we are missionaries.
"We have to explain we are non-political and non-religious. All of that can hold up the aid operation."
As far as the women not wearing Burkhas in the camps, it is my understanding that the photos we are seeing are mostly from the Northern Alliance. They don't wear the Burkhas because the Taliban doesn't control them. And just because we don't see the buckets and bottles of water doesn't mean they aren't there. I am just so grateful that we are trying to liberate and help them. We need them to fight the Taliban and Osama. They need our food.
I'm a firm believer with this type of person "It's What Comes Out of their Mouth" that shows their backward mentality.
"Thank God, Mother Nature Bats Last"!
These are children. They are no different than the children that I have in my own home. They want to play, have both of their parents to love them, they would love to have toys, clothing, and so forth. They want and need to eat. I doubt that a large number of us realize what true hunger is. I doubt that many of us have felt the pangs of such a horrible monster as hunger. It breaks my heart to know that these children are subjected to the horrors that they are.
Regardless of what nationality they are, they are still hungry children. They have done nothing to us to provoke our wrath. They are innocent victims of the wars that have plagued their land. If they are hungry, feed them. I don't care if the pics were staged. They are children.
Slainte,
CC
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