WELL-ARMED HUMANITARIANS:

May the forces be with us: Aid workers in earthquake-hit Pakistan have found the help of the army indispensable (Robin Lodge, November 28, 2005, Guardian Unlimited)

[I]t's not just the helicopters. When we couldn't find non-government organisations or even volunteers to distribute the food, we delivered by road. Pakistani soldiers put down their guns and hefted the sacks over their shoulders to bring the food to the people who needed it. In about half of the 90 or so army-run camps for people displaced by the earthquake, the army is distributing food delivered by WFP. And it's not just the Pakistan army. WFP's helicopters have been supplemented by Chinooks from the Royal Air Force and CH-53s from Nato.

As a result, we can now shift upwards of 100 tonnes of supplies a day to areas inaccessible by road. And I haven't even started to talk about the mules.

The lesson learned from this is that we should not agonise over petty points of principle when it comes to working with the armed forces in emergencies caused by natural disasters.

It is always pretty clear when armies or militias are in the business of ending, rather than saving lives, or have lapsed into abuses of civilians. We know full well when to stay away. We have no role to play in the politics of Pakistan or Pakistan-administered Kashmir. But when it comes to humanitarian aid, all forces should combine efforts wherever possible.

We need to examine new ways, possibly an efficient system of standby agreements, to work with responsible armed forces in emergencies like the earthquake in Kashmir. That would give us a far better chance of providing an effective joint response from day one.

It's an idiotic principle to begin with--is there any organization in the history of humankind that has a better humanitarian track record than the American military?

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 28, 2005 12:06 AM