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Bush's Other Target: Hearts and Minds
Thursday, September 27, 2001
By By Mark Riley / Sidney Morning Herald Correspondent in New York,
& agencies

... U.S. was trying to walk a fine line between striking back and destroying its relationships with Afghanistan's Muslim neighbours ...

The Bush Administration has been quietly developing a parallel plan alongside its military preparations that would see a massive air drop of food and other humanitarian aid into Afghanistan in a bid to win the "hearts and minds of the people".

The Defence Department is formulating the plan after aid groups requested help for possibly millions of people -- fleeing refugees as well as those displaced inside Afghanistan.

A Pentagon official quoted in the Boston Globe newspaper said the US was considering several aid methods, including dropping supplies from the air and using regional military bases as staging areas for humanitarian relief.

Russia this week gave the US permission to use its airspace for humanitarian missions. Japan also offered help.

Five million to seven million people are estimated to be at risk in Afghanistan and Western food and humanitarian aid to relieve their plight is seen as a non-military means of further weakening the Taliban's grip on the country.
(More: smh.com.au News Source)
Copyright The Sidney Morning Herald © 2001. All rights reserved.

Dan