[Vision2020] "Humanitarian Warfare" in Pakistan: Bombs not Bread: "...scale of flood disaster barely comprehensible"

[Ron Force]

The $150 million pledged by the U.S. for flood relief is how much the U.S. gives 
to Pakistan PER MONTH for their military.  


70% of which couldn't be traced and may have been misspent: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/28/pakistan.usa

or diverted to weapons systems to counter India:
http://www.cfr.org/publication/16644/uspakistan_military_cooperation.html

Ron Force
Moscow ID USA


________________________________
From: Ted Moffett <starbliss at gmail.com>
To: Moscow Vision 2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Sat, August 21, 2010 3:06:10 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] "Humanitarian Warfare" in Pakistan: Bombs not Bread: 
"...scale of flood disaster barely comprehensible"


http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20641
 
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=section&sectionName=about
 
"Humanitarian Warfare" in Pakistan: Bombs not Bread. 
The scale of the disaster caused by the floods is barely comprehensible

by Felicity Arbuthnot
 
Global Research, August 16, 2010
 
" .. to wade through slaughter ... and shut the gates of mercy on mankind." 
Thomas Gray (1716-1771.) 

The scale of the disaster caused by the floods in Pakistan, is barely 
comprehensible. As Juan Cole has written, expressing near disbelief : "The 
submerged area of the country is as big as the United Kingdom, fourteen million 
Pakistanis are affected, two million are homeless." Six million need immediate 
relief, according to the UN., and thirty six thousand are suffering from acute 
diarrhoeal symptoms, with cholera already diagnosed. 1,600 are reported dead, 
with the number certain to multiply. Famine is a real possibility. 

The great Indus river, one of the world's longest, which flows also through 
China, India and Kashmir, rising in Tibet and flowing in to the Arabian Sea, has 
flooded Sindh and Balochistan provinces, forcing the evacuation of over ninety 
percent of the villages. With no place to hide, people watched their homes 
washed away, in a monsoon season that continues through September. Hundreds of 
villages are inundated or completely under water, with roads, rail links, thus 
transportation cut, as frantic people try to flee to safer ground. It is the 
worst flooding in the country's history, with some experts saying the region 
worst affected for nearly one hundred years. A far wider area is now threatened. 

When the waters subside, the million-plus people who are directly or indirectly 
dependent on the mangroves, will have had their livelihood affected or erased, 
as will the fishermen along this great expanse. 

Looking at US., news sites, the enormity of this tragedy has evoked not pity, 
but almost universal vindictiveness. One with over 19,000 comments are typified 
by: 


-"Pray for more rain"; "Uncle Sam, I need your help again!!! ..."; 
-"Doesn't it just pull at your heartstrings that Dear Ol' Uncle Sam wants to 
help out the enemy-"; 

-"Ha, God truly works in mysterious ways ... forsaken by their false prophet"; 
-"What did it cost to deploy this missle to kill a measly 12 people? Not good 
use of our tax dollars! Get a bigger missle,12,000 would be better!"(1) are, 
sickeningly, a few of the milder ones, addressed to a River Valley civilization 
which dates to about 3,300 BC., with tools found, used fifteen thousand years 
ago. 

Saturday 14th August, is Pakistan's Independence Day, celebrated annually since 
1947. Flags and flowers, traditionally decorate all, homes, roofs, vehicles. 
This year celebrations were muted to sombre, devastation and death dominated. 
Prayers for both replaced festivity. The army cancelled their celebrations and 
donated the funds allocated for their day's events to the flood victims. 

President Obama in a message for Independence Day, pledged U.S. support: “... in 
line with deepening partnership between the two nations”, praising the Pakistani 
people " ... as they bravely respond to widespread and unprecedented flooding." 
He ended: "I have directed my Administration to continue to work closely with 
the Government of Pakistan and provide assistance in their response to this 
crisis.” 

Pakistan has requested helicopters from this US "partner", close by in 
Afghanistan, however : "A senior U.S. military official said transfer of 
additional helicopters, which are in short supply in Afghanistan, would require 
a political decision in Washington. 'Do they exist in the region? Yes', he said. 
'Are they available? No' ", writes Robert Naiman. 

What was available, on Pakistan's National Day, and the third day of the holy 
month of Ramadan, were US drones. A US missile strike on (as ever) a "militant" 
compound on the Afghan border, killing thirteen "rebels" and wounding five 
others on Saturday, in the village of Eisori, in North Pakistan, is widely 
reported. Wait for the bodies of the militant children, women, teenagers. It is 
still confusing to know how these "militants" are recognised from the air, from 
a computer in the US, given so many have turned out to be families having a 
meal, tending their land, or mince-meated infants. What happened to Courts of 
Law? 

Unmanned drones, decimating lives since 2004 in the US's "deepening partnership" 
country, operated by those who have graduated from computer games to war games, 
with real human targets, has to be one of life's more memorable, bizarre, 
cowardly, illegal obscenities. Some "partnership." 

The good news or the bad? 
A shipload of U.S. Marines and helicopters did arrive to boost relief efforts in 
flooded Pakistan on Thursday (12th August.) However, given the number of US 
Special Services alleged to have been at sites of bombings in Pakistan, from 
schools to communal compounds, the cynic might wonder whether this is in spirit 
of co-operation and "partnership" or an eye to the main chance. 

And the US has a bit of form when it comes to Ramadan missiles. In Ramadan in 
Iraq, the US., military signed their missiles with: "Have a nice Ramadan, 
Saddam." 

UN Secretary General, Ban, has finally limped in to Pakistan, saying not a lot. 
The Taliban have offered, allegedly, twenty million dollars in aid if Pakistan 
rejects US aid (given US form, they could possibly be on to something - further 
once in, the US., have a tendency to stay) and President Obama and his family 
are swimming in Florida to promote tourism in BP infested waters. 

One commentator reached a US news site, and compared poor Michelle Obama to 
Marie Antoinette. A long way from: "Change we can believe in." 

Nearly five hundred years ago, William Shakespeare put it well : " ... perjured, 
murderous, bloody, full of blame; savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust." 

Funny world. 

Note

(1) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_pakistan#mwpphu-container  
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_pakistan#mwpphu-container 

Felicity Arbuthnot is a frequent contributor to Global Research.  Global 
Research Articles by Felicity Arbuthnot 

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett


      
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