Stardate 20011005.0546 (On Screen): International charities are calling on everyone involved in the Afghani struggle to make sure that agencies like CARE and Oxfam are capable of operating in Afghanistan without being hampered or harmed, so as to avert mass starvation. While I think that is a good thing (see below) I don't see what the US is capable of doing about it. We aren't capable, for example, of providing armed guards on the ground for food convoys; any such attempt would instantly set off a ground war, which isn't something we're ready for yet. As to our bombing, we cannot promise to avoid hitting areas where the NGOs are operating, because they're going to be operating everywhere and that would too thoroughly tie our hands. Once bombing begins, anything and everything
could potentially be a target. Most things won't be, but it is vitally important that our enemy not think that anything in particular is potentially off-limits, because if we provide them any predetermined safe zone they will surely use it to protect their combatants and critical equipment. If they place anti-aircraft batteries or concentrations of troops in the middle of refugee camps, for instance, we will still have to bomb them.
I think that the NGOs know this. Their plea has to be made to all sides equally in order to avoid seeming partisan, but it's really the Taliban that they're pleading with, given how the Taliban has in the past treated international aid agencies. (discussion in progress)
