Fly-bys for Afghans

To the editors:

Before The Crimson piles on more praise of President George W. Bush’s compassion for the starving in Afghanistan (Editorial, “Just the Beginning, Oct. 9), they should critically examine whether his food-drop publicity stunt even remotely addresses the actual problem.

By scattering food pouches from aircraft miles up in the sky on a landscape littered with millions of land mines, this ill-conceived effort is forcing starving Afghans to go on an Easter egg hunt in a minefield.

Instead, the Bush administration should work to minimize the military campaign’s disruption of ground relief efforts already in place for years. Currently, the U.N. World Food Program has stopped food deliveries into Afghanistan because truck drivers are unwilling to take the risk of getting bombed. An assurance by Bush that relief convoys won’t be targeted will do much more to help the needy.

Ting Wang ’02

Oct. 10, 2001