Washington and London have pretty well got what they wanted out of their intervention in Afghanistan. Indeed, in the rapid ouster of the Taleban regime, they achieved more than their wildest dreams. British Premier Tony Blair probably still felt that amazement when he met Afghan interim President Hamid Karzai, amid British troops at the Baghram air base this week. Now it is time for the Americans and the British to start giving the Afghans something of what they want — most particularly food. The evidence is mounting that tens of thousands of Afghans, many of whom in remote districts, are on the edge of starvation. One reliable report says that one community is so hungry that it has been reduced to eating grass, grubbed up from under winter snows.
The aid agencies are working hard but they are hampered by a lack of coordination and, in the final analysis, a lack of the right equipment. They are also, in certain areas, particularly around Kandahar, encountering demands from local chiefs that bribes — characterized as transit taxes — are paid before aid can be allowed through their area. No decent person can have anything but contempt for one Afghan who demands money before aid agencies are permitted to go ahead and save another Afghan’s life. But despicable though such behavior may be, it is not the main reason that food is not reaching those who so desperately need it. The truth is that, logistically, the job is simply too big, even for agencies with a lot of money to pay local truckers to drive up into the winter mountains with their precious aid cargoes. Nor are there sufficient helicopters and transport planes for hire to take the thousands of tons of food and medicines into remote areas. The fear is that when the snows finally melt, they will reveal the grim picture of whole villages decimated by starvation and disease.
The irony is that Washington characterized its attack on Afghanistan as being for the sake of the Afghan people. However, it is now clear that the soothing Washington words of concern for the ordinary Afghans were delivered merely because they suited the moment. Neither Washington nor London appears particularly interested in the delivery of urgent aid to the rest of the country. They may have helped provide some of the food and medicines; they may be making a lot of promises about rebuilding infrastructure and helping get the Afghan economy back to life. But what about now?
The aid agencies are admitting that they have never had to tackle a crisis on this scale, in such harsh conditions as those now closing around much of Afghanistan. But even though we may be sure that they will do their best, it seems tragically clear that their efforts will not be enough to save many thousands.
Is it not the time that the Americans started to deploy some of their technological might in the cause of aid deliveries? Where are the heavy lift helicopters and the mammoth transport planes with their food drops, which we used to hear so much about in the first part of the US bombing? If American ingenuity can deliver half-a-ton of high explosives to within a few inches of a target, why can’t Washington use the same technology to deliver food to within a few inches of those who need it so badly?
