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Wednesday, June 4, 2008
The Politics of
Humanitarian Aid
by
Walter Brasch
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Walter Brasch is professor
of journalism at Bloomsburg University and president of the
Pennsylvania Press Club. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed
‘Unacceptable’: The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina (January
2006) and Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush
(November 2007), both available through amazon.com, borders.com, and
other bookstores.
You may contact Brasch at
brasch@bloomu.edu
or through his website at:
www.walterbrasch.com.
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President Bush was
justifiably upset. A cyclone four days earlier had destroyed a large
portion of Myanmar, and the country’s military junta was still
refusing humanitarian aid. “Let the United States come to help you,
help the people,” Bush pleaded with the junta. “We’re prepared to move
U.S. Navy assets to help find those who’ve lost their lives, to help
find the missing, to help stabilize the situation,” said the
President, “but in order to do so, the military junta must allow our
disaster assessment teams into the country.”
With more than
20,000 dead, possibly 40,000 missing, and close to one million
homeless, the junta made it clear that it, not the international
community, would provide whatever humanitarian aid was necessary.
A week before the
cyclone hit, President Bush extended sanctions against Myanmar by
another year because of what he called that junta’s “large-scale
repression of the democratic opposition.” Paranoid about anything that
could threaten its power, the junta was frightened that the United
States would use the cyclone as a reason to invade the country.
The junta’s response
the first week of May was little different than the international
concern almost three years earlier. It wasn’t the destruction of
villages and the rice farming industry, but the destruction of cities
and the shrimp industry. It wasn’t a cyclone named Nargis, but a
hurricane named Katrina.
It’s been well
documented that the Bush–Cheney Administration, with its head in Iraq,
wasn’t prepared for a natural disaster. Like the leaders in Myanmar,
the Bush–Cheney Administration was slow to inform the people, and slow
to act during the crisis. Less known is that President Bush refused
innumerable offers of assistance to the people of the Gulf Coast.
More than 20
countries—including Israel, Mexico, China, England, and the Dominican
Republic—quickly offered humanitarian and financial assistance.
President Bush’s first response was to tell the audience of ABC-TV’s
“Good Morning, America”:
I’m not expecting
much from foreign nations because we hadn’t asked for it. I do expect
a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this
country’s going to rise up and take care of it. . . . You know, we
would love help, but we’re going to take care of our own business as
well, and there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll succeed.”
Cuba, which has one
of the best health care and disaster response systems in the world,
offered substantial medical supplies and 1,600 physicians, most of
them specialists. Rejected.
Venezuela offered $1
million, in addition to oil and humanitarian supplies. Rejected.
Russia offered
medical supplies, evacuation equipment, a water cleansing system, a
rescue helicopter, and 60 persons specially trained in search and
rescue operations. Rejected.
Germany sent a
military plane carrying 15 tons of emergency provisions. The United
States denied it landing rights.
Not only did the
federal government reject humanitarian offers from other countries, it
either rejected or ignored offers by the American people and its own
governmental agencies.
Before the storm
hit, Amtrak offered trains to evacuate New Orleans. Ignored.
The Forest Service,
shortly after Katrina came ashore, offered water-tanker aircraft to
fight the fires. Ignored.
The Coast Guard,
which would fly more than 20,000 rescue operations, offered 1,000
gallons of diesel fuel to Jefferson Parrish. The federal government
refused to allow delivery.
The captain of an
amphibious assault ship off the Gulf Coast offered to send her sailors
onto land to help the people, have her helicopters assist in rescue
operations, provide as much as 100,000 gallons of drinkable water a
day, and open her ship’s operating rooms to provide medical assistance
and 600 beds for the relief effort. The federal government ignored and
then delayed her offer.
During the first
week of the disaster, the federal government had ordered the Red Cross
and Salvation Army not to go into the New Orleans disaster zone,
falsely citing a lack of adequate security. Gov. Bill Richardson of
New Mexico offered 400 National Guard soldiers the day the hurricane
hit; however, they weren’t sent for four more days because of what
Richardson called “federal paperwork” that the Pentagon insisted had
to first be completed.
Chicago offered
firefighters, police, health workers, sanitation workers, a mobile
health clinic, trucks, boats, and cars. Rejected.
The Florida Airboat
Association offered to send in 300 fully equipped boats with trained
pilots. Rejected.
About 75 companies
volunteered to use their own corporate aircraft to ferry supplies into
smaller local and regional airports. When the federal government
ignored the offer, the companies flew in more than 130,000 pounds of
food and critical supplies, making determinations without federal
assistance or appreciation of where the needs were the greatest.
Hundreds of
companies tried to provide several million gallons of drinking water
and ice for the evacuees. The federal government either blocked their
delivery or routed them on a circuitous path throughout the South, and
never allowed them to unload their cargoes. Members of the
International Bottled Water Association did provide 10 million bottles
of fresh water for evacuees, but received no assistance from the
federal government, which refused to return several phone calls.
A national
corporation offered free telecommunications equipment but the federal
government rejected it, according to Ern Blackwelder of the Business
Executives for National Security. Blackwelder told the Atlanta
Journal–Constitution that the government later contracted with the
same company and paid for equipment that had previously been offered
at no charge.
About a week after
Katrina hit, the U.S. began accepting humanitarian aid, but only from
countries it determined were its allies.
Make no mistake
about it, the leaders of Myanmar are dictators who trample human
rights, have led their nation into an extended economic crisis, and
are interested only in keeping their own power. Almost a month after
Nargis hit the Irrawaddy Delta, the junta is now finally allowing
foreign aid, but not from the United States.
But also make no
mistake about this. The United States under its current administration
will continue to refuse humanitarian aid and personnel from Cuba,
Venezuela, and any other country that doesn’t agree with the
Bush–Cheney politics.
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