(Originally posted Jan. 4, 2005)
The Adventures of Chester has a very good set of articles covering tsunami relief efforts by the U.S. military:
"I'm doing some in-depth work this week on the US military relief effort in SE Asia. I think it will really kick off from its current initial phase in about 3-5 days."
I'm hoping he expands his coverage to the entire core group, plus Russia. It would be an illustrative comparison to the U.N., on which more later. Meanwhile, see especially:
- Those U.S. helicopters flying aid supplies into remote regions are worth their weight in gold... and saving many, many lives. Utapo air Base in Thailand is also playing a big role.
- Chester offers Humanitarian Assistance Basics I, then goes on to Humanitarian Assistance III: General Zinni's Rules:
"General Zinni went on to be the Commander-in-Chief of Central Command, and became very highly regarded for his experience in military operations other than war, including humanitarian assistance. Here are his rules to keep in mind when participating in these operations, and they, or a version of them, are no doubt being carefully followed on board many ships even as we speak...."
Do you want to know what U.S. military forces are committed to the effort? Chester keeps us updated, and follows up with 15th MEU (Marines Expeditionary Unit) Concept of Operations Insight. See the comments, too, as well as the latest post covering Admiral Fargo's Jan. 3rd Press Conference. Chester, get those updates consolidated into one place!
Fortunately, standing multinational standard operating procedures that have been developed over years with the cooperation of over 31 different countries are helping the aid come together.
Contrast with Belmont Club's "Swine Before Pearls." Real capabilities and a long history of coordination and exercises over time (like Cobra Gold) are a hell of a lot more important than the ridiculous farce of the U.N.'s coordination teams for the coordination teams (I wish I was joking about that...), and Belmont Club's far more detailed comparison here.
The Toyota Taliban strike again!
from DIPLOMAD Blog:
The post below reports on the impending arrival of Ms. Margareeta Wahlstrom "United Nations Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and the Secretary-General's Special Coordinator for Humanitarian Assistance in Tsunami-affected countries."
She has spoken! At a large meeting this afternoon, she and the local UN rep, Mr. Bo "Please Wear Blue" Asplund have announced the arrival of yet another "United Nations Joint Assessment Team." But this one is very, very ultra- special. According to the UNocrats, it's not "just another assessment team." Oh, no, banish that thought! You see, "This assessment team will coordinate all the other assessment teams." In addition, the UN will set up a "Civil-Military Coordination Office to coordinate [that word! that word!] all military assistance because the military do not have experience in disaster relief (!)"
Hey,
Here is a tidbit about the UN that you might be interested in reading and commenting on.
This is my post
Papa Ray
West Texas
USA
This is slightly off-topic. We're still too soon into relief effort and will need more time to recognize the repercussions:
One of the recent slanders going around has been the notion that the U.S. is "stingy". I'm sure there have been more than one online poll posing the question about whether current U.S. efforts will counter this belief.
While I believe that, on balance, these efforts WILL turn around perceptions of the U.S., I don't believe that this will true everywhere.
The cynic in me leads me to believe that nothing can be done to persuade Arab Sunni Muslims to come to our side. They're just hopeless.
For Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation on the earth, the difference between the U.S. and al Qaeda right now is literally the difference between life and death.
While we prattle and preen, The Vultures circle and land.
Drawing up thier napkins and sharp knives to divide the spoils...
This is my post
Papa Ray
West Texas
Usa