Stardate 20011116.1942 (On Screen): The World Food Program announced that it has shipped 52,000 metric tons of food into Afghanistan in November, enough to meet its target. There are some distribution problems (which are being worked out) and there remain some security issues, which will stabilize as the Northern Alliance continues to pacify the country and as western troops move in and secure airports. The NGO's which were distributing food are returning to take up that job again, and it's looking now as if mass starvation in Afghanistan can be avoided. This is, of course, superb news. It means that the Afghan people are in nearly every way better off now because of this war, which is a boon.
One staple of leftist anti-war writings recently has been the claim that millions of Afghans were going to starve this winter (and it was going to be all our fault because we refused to stop the bombing) and now that appears to be unlikely. But I bet we still see claims and accusations over the next month or so that millions of Afghans are starving because of us. Why let little things like facts get in the way of good rhetoric? (discussion in progress)
Update: I posted this article onto MetaFilter, and an hour and a half later there's no expressions of joy, no sighs of relief, no cheers, no celebration about a tragedy averted -- in fact, there's no response at all. If I didn't know better, I'd think that the people using that system were disappointed to read this. After all, now it means they have nothing to complain about.
