Because of an article e-mailed to me by a friend (http://www.guardian.co.uk, April 3, thanks Boots), I have started thinking again about the problems of humanitarian aid in Iraq. After Bush invaded Iraq and international opposition to his plan restrained itself, it appeared that the threat to international institutions might end. Could we look beyond Iraq to find ways of working again?

The issue of humanitarian aid appears to threatened another international institution. Bush intends to use it for his agenda. In the process, he will undermine the credibility that relief workers have built over the decades. Relief workers depend on political and ideological neutrality to gain the trust of hostile politicians and soldiers in order to bring food and administer health care. They have nothing to protect themselves, but sometimes have guns pointed at their heads. That could change if people begin to believe that relief workers will try to convert people, either religiously or politically. Since the US makes more dictators than it removes, this neutrality may be the only means of bringing material care to people in many parts of the world where Bush will not invade ("liberate.") Aid in the rest of the world may become an even more critical issue since the crisis in Iraq will force a redistribution of resources to the Middle East. Areas of Africa will be de-preferenced, even though the needs of the people will remain acute (my greatest concern is in the Great Lakes region, where a settlement of hostility just took place.)

We should not forget that US policies are responsible for many of the humanitarian crises currently experienced in Iraq. Sanctions that US demanded have created material impoverishment. The war chased out relief workers and disrupted the supply of food and medicine. The Iraqi government was responsible for providing food for innumerable Iraqis, up to 60 percent in the south where the people are "neglected and oppressed." (Imagine if Bush were willing to promise that level of support to Americans!) Aid from US and UK has been slow to arrive. The OCHA for Iraq, which was supposed to enter Iraq from Kuwait at the side of the US Army, has been left behind (military obviously took priority, and Bush promises were broken.)

Re-writing of language complaint for the day: "freedom fighter" should be called collaborators. That is what they were called in WW II, and it should not be changed.

Current listening: Roberto Juan Rodriguez, El Danzon de Moises
Quick reading: short stories by Borges

http://www.hrw.org/editorials/2003/iraq031603.htm
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/vLCE/Iraq?OpenDocument&StartKey=Iraq&Expandview
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/9ca65951ee22658ec125663300408599/9f3592668f82768dc1 256cf7003ea06c?OpenDocument
http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/projects/showreport.cfm?reportid=930
http://www.cesr.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&catid=529&cpid=398