US pledge to aid millions of casualties

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | February 26 2003 | Marian Wilkinson, Herald Correspondent in Washington

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The Bush Administration has sent "massive" supplies of humanitarian aid to the Gulf region to cope with up to 2million refugees and displaced people as part of its planning for a war with Iraq, US officials said yesterday.

Relief supplies including blankets, water containers, shelters and essential medicines for up to a million people are already on their way to warehouses in countries bordering Iraq. Forty-six shipping containers carrying the supplies are en route.

Nearly 3million "humanitarian daily rations" are being stockpiled in the region to meet emergency food needs. About 60 per cent of Iraqis depend on a government ration program for their food, but this is expected to be disrupted when the conflict begins.

US planning for the huge aid effort has been under way for several months, according to a National Security Council official, Elliott Abrams, who held a special briefing on the program.

Mr Abrams and officials from the Pentagon and US AID stressed that their planning was for "worst case scenarios" but it was impossible to put firm figures on refugee movements or casualties. They said the military planning "for the liberation of Iraq" would try to "minimise impact on civilian populations".

The US has asked other countries to contribute to the emergency aid funds but so far only limited donations have been forthcoming. Mr Abrams said there had been contributions "by a number of governments in the millions of dollars".

The officials stressed that the US would be working with the UN and non-government aid agencies during the war and its aftermath.

But there were also signs that the US government and military will be closely directing the aid efforts inside Iraq. Mr Abrams said the US had established a large "humanitarian operation centre" in Kuwait City to co-ordinate the US civilian agencies, the UN, non-government aid agencies and officials from America's coalition partners. Mr Abrams said the centre was not a replacement for the UN but "a supplement".

US officials also unveiled disaster assistance response teams (DARTs) which would enter Iraq with US military forces. These teams would assess the initial aid needs of the community and get US supplies to them.

But Mr Abrams rejected suggestions that the aid teams, working with the US military, would be used to engender support for the US.

Asked if the program was similar to the "hearts and minds" operations of the Vietnam War, when aid was used to try to shore up US support, Mr Abrams said: "I would not make that comparison." He said US operations in Afghanistan provided a better parallel.

A White House paper on the preparations for humanitarian assistance in Iraq, distributed at the briefing, opened with a quote from President Bush's State of the Union address in January: "As we and our coalition partners are doing in Afghanistan, we will bring to the Iraqi people food, medicines and supplies - and freedom."

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The headline is very misleading - I don’t think hungry people, who were hungry long before we get there, actually qualify as “casualties.”

The US has asked other countries to contribute to the emergency aid funds but so far only limited donations have been forthcoming.

Yeah, they’re all too busy whining about us to actually do something.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

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