humanitarian aid

[barbara100 at jps.net]

I just listened to Donald Rumsfield on TV.  It was a press conference to
discuss the recent Bomb Damage Assessment in Afghanistan.  Two reporters,
however, brought up the Food issue.  One noted the 37,000 daily rations the
US is dropping off to the refugees isn't nearly enough to feed the presumed
4 million starving.  He only responded with, 'Well if you were one of those
37,000, you'd be pretty appreciative, wouldn't you.'
The other reporter noted that before September 11 there were some 700 tons
of food moving across the Afghan boarder on a daily or weekly basis: 'So
even with the aid packages the US is dropping,  isn't there a net loss in
aid going to Afghanistan?'  Donald Rumsfield got a little flustered with
that one, and all he could say was, 'It would be a terrible
mischaracterization to say there's a net loss.'   I was so appalled by then,
I can't remember what he said after that, but he definitely tried to spin it
back on the fault of the Taliban regime before moving quickly to the next
question.
Our government is manipulating us terribly, not to mention slowly starving
to death 4 million Afghan refugees.