Posted on 01/29/2005 6:10:22 PM PST by 1066AD
US Navy officer attacks 'travelling circus of aid workers' for impeding the tsunami relief effort in Indonesia By Philip Sherwell in Washington and Inigo Gilmore in Banda Aceh (Filed: 30/01/2005)
A US Navy officer serving on the Abraham Lincoln, the aircraft carrier at the heart of the Indonesia tsunami relief effort, has attacked United Nations officials, aid workers and the media for impeding flights to help the survivors.
Criticising their behaviour and demands, the officer declared: "My warship has been transformed into a floating hotel for a bunch of trifling do-gooders."
The relief effort has been a 'frustrating and needlessly dangerous exercise' due in part to a 'travelling circus'
The officer, writing on a website popular with American military personnel under the pen name Ed Stanton, also said that the carrier's combat-readiness and its pilots' safety had been jeopardised by Indonesian military restrictions as they tried to carry out relief operations.
Stanton wrote his column after three weeks off the Indonesian coast. "It has been a frustrating and needlessly dangerous exercise, made even more difficult by the Indonesian government and a travelling circus of so-called aid workers who have invaded our spaces," he said.
"Mixed in were a bunch of reporters, cameramen and Indonesian military officers looking like tourists on their way to Disneyland."
Stanton's attack was rejected by UN officials in Banda Aceh, who praised the American military. On the ground, however, some aid workers also complained about UN bureaucracy, while Acehnese told of inefficiencies in the aid operation.
Among Stanton's gripes was the complaint that the navy's Seahawk helicopters were required to spend much of their time ferrying relief workers around before bringing them back to their "guest bedrooms".
Aid teams, he said, "threw themselves at the mercy" of the US Navy because there were no five-star hotels but declined to pay for meals.
Stanton was similarly scathing of television crews. "We had to dedicate two helos [helicopters] and a C-2 cargo plane for Dan Rather and his entourage of door-holders and briefcase-carriers from CBS News," he claimed.
In their defence, journalists said that the helicopters were also carrying relief supplies.
The job of the Indonesian officers on board, he felt, "apparently is to encourage our leaving as soon as possible. They want our money and help but they don't want their population to see that the Americans are doing far more for them in two weeks than their own government has ever done for them".
He was also furious that the Indonesians refused to allow the Americans to use their airspace for routine training and flight operations "while we are saving the lives of their people, some of whom wear Bin Laden T-shirts as they grab at our food and water".
As a result, Stanton wrote, pilots were not meeting safety regulations because they could not train and practise enough. "The longer we stay here helping these people, the more dangerous it gets to operate," he said. "It is time to give this mission to somebody other than the US Navy."
Stanton's views were not welcomed by the military. Lt David Benham, a Pacific Fleet spokesman, said: "The comments do not reflect the position of the US government. We are working closely with the governments and organisations out there. They want us there and we want to be there."
The Lincoln is, however, understood to have moved farther offshore because of the sensitivities of the Indonesian authorities.
UN officials in Banda Aceh rejected Stanton's accusations. Jasper Lund, the co-ordinator, said: "We could not just get 10 helicopters in the air like that and the help of the Americans was crucial.
"I can understand if some commander gets worked up, because he sees their role as helping those starving on the ground with their helicopters, but it is a misunderstanding to think we were doing anything to prevent this."
He said that claims that UN officials refused to pay bills were hard to believe as they received meal allowances.
Heather Hill, the World Food Programme's spokesman in Banda Aceh, said it was true that UN officials had carried out "assessments" but she rejected suggestions that they hampered operations.
She said that it had taken time to get to positions "in country" but they had now reached remote places. "No one is living off caviar. Conditions are hard but people are motivated by the idea of being part of this historic mission."
A Spanish aid agency worker in Banda Aceh, however, said that some UN officials had appeared arrogant, and suggested that the UN was hindered by bureaucracy.
"It is a huge machine and it moves very slowly," he said. "It takes 50 pages of bureaucratic work just to move one nail. This can be a problem and that is why some Americans are probably upset. They like to just get on with it."
The United Nations provides jobs for people that have no management skills, logic, or intelligence.
I emailed this story to Diplomad -- he will enjoy it.
Get ready! This officer is going to need help. The politicians and media will be like sharks in the water.
If I recall the story correctly, Ted Kennedy never called the police. They (the police) found the car the next morning. Kennedy had, by that time, swum over to the mainland, concocted a story with his "advisors," and returned as the police were pulling the car from the water and checking the license plate.
Anybody out there remember the details?
"I find it hard to believe an American would have used the word "trifling" but maybe I'm wrong."
Well, I for one will not be trifled with.
But he got his ticket punched. His situation would be similar to the one in which another Harvard man, long ago, found himself when he was convicted on federal charges of some sort -- insurance or securities fraud, something like that. On the appointed day, he showed up to enter prison dressed in his natty best and wearing his Porcellian pig.
I cant believe all these posts regarding the word trifling.
Seriously, didnt we learn anything from the U.S.S. Cole?
Why is an asset, such as a carrier being used as a hotel/helo tourist attraction for these sponges? Didnt they pack a tent in their 'supplies'?
Any Navy FReepers give me a lesson about ship security protocals for allowing foreign 'visitors' aboard our warships while parked in potentially hostile waters???
Trifling is used by inner city blacks all the time. I use it a lot now myself.
Ping to 48 please
"Stanton was similarly scathing of television crews. "We had to dedicate two helos [helicopters] and a C-2 cargo plane for Dan Rather and his entourage of door-holders and briefcase-carriers from CBS News," he claimed."
darn!...they missed a chance to give old Dan 'the bump'
wouldn't that have been a shame.....
I will have to start using the word "trifling". I like it
>>Stanton's views were not welcomed by the military. Lt David Benham, a Pacific Fleet spokesman, said: "The comments do not reflect the position of the US government. We are working closely with the governments and organisations out there. They want us there and we want to be there."<<
Not welcomed but certainly not disagreed with.
Oh come on. I think you're trifling with us.
;-)
My first impression, too. An American Naval Officer? Bull Halsey must be spinning in his grave. Then again, wasn't it the famous American Naval Officer, John Kerry, who referred to Jenghis Kahn?
Here you go, enjoy:
http://www.ytedk.com/chappindex.htm
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