In an interview I heard yesterday on NPR with an American aid worker, he pointed out that one day's worth of rations for 37,000 people (about what was dropped) amounts to a symbolic gesture, albeit an eloquent one, in a nation of 4 million suffering in the throes of drought, famine and oppression.

He went on to say that the Bush administration has earmarked a budget item of $320 million for humanitarian aid to the Afghanis, and that this is a very generous amount, but that the the logistics of delivery would continue to be the most difficult obstacle to overcome. He remarked that these logistics would depend on which way the Afghanis went: to refugee camps inside the borders of Iran or Pakistan, or to some perceived safe haven in the interior.

To hear the interview (it's short) go to npr.org, the October 7 program, and scroll down to the entry titled "Afghan Refugees".

The air dropped rations by themselves will not make a long-lasting impression. The delivery of over $300 million's worth of aid to people living in a nation whose government is harboring a group of accused war criminals has a better chance of speaking for us.

Mary Anne