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Originally Posted by wolf
If you drop supplies on a dock to rot, or get stolen, or held and defended by the strongest motherfucker in the area, you have served no useful purpose.
Relief work is not just about getting the right supplies to the right place. It's about getting them distributed to the people who actually need them. You also have to look at what you're handing out — What use is a ton of dried milk and rice if you don't also have clean water?
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Exactly. So where are the people on the ground to distribute even the paltry aid from six C-130s. What was most needed immediately in those countries with the food, water, etc? What were the countries requesting first and foremost? People on the ground who could distribute the aid. Did American send even that in the first 5 days? Of course not. We sent some small transports - C-130s - and not even the ground crews to start the distribution.
America has abilities to repair airstrips and provide air traffic control to any airport immediately. But it too sat stifled for five days while a president decided to make a decision. Fortuntately other nations are responsible.
Did America deploy such abillities in the first week? No. Only one thing stopped the American government response. George Jr had to make a decision. One week too late - this stuff is finally moving.
BTW why are airstrips so congested? Why do they need so many more feet on the ground to distribute a conjestion of supplies at the airstrips? Because so many supplies were flown in by tiny New Zealand and Australia when they were most needed. They could not put enough feet into the distribution system. However those others who are truly 'moral' responded immediately when most needed - while America waited for George Jr to decide this was a disaster.