Posted on 01/05/2005 10:29:24 AM PST by Incorrigible
Jan 4, 2005 2:31 pm US/Mountain
ABOARD THE USS BONHOMME RICHARD (AP) Down in the hull, everything is ready: There are tractors, trucks and three huge landing craft. There’s water purifying equipment and plastic tarps and wood beams for building temporary shelters.
And there are more than 1,300 Marines ready to take it all ashore and get to work helping tsunami survivors. But in the political minefield of southern Asia, getting American boots on the ground is a delicate concept—even for a strictly humanitarian mission.
While U.S. military helicopters have been flying supplies to stricken villages in Indonesia for a few days, plans to land a Marine expeditionary unit on Sri Lanka were put on hold after that nation’s government scaled back its request for help, possibly to avoid further strains on a shaky cease-fire with insurgents.
The island’s Tamil Tiger rebels objected to the presence of troops from the United States or neighboring India, saying they could be used as spies for the government. The rebels, which control a large portion of northern and eastern Sri Lanka, detest the U.S. and Indian governments because both officially list the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist group.
American officials said the Marines never intended to go into rebel-controlled areas.
U.S. commanders had earmarked the amphibious assault ships Bonhomme Richard and Duluth to spearhead relief efforts off Sri Lanka’s coast, but the ships have now joined the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its battle group off the hard-hit Indonesian island of Sumatra.
It’s not clear the Marines will go ashore there, either. The image of large numbers of Marines on shore would be politically sensitive in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, where many people oppose the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Col. Thomas Greenwood, commanding officer of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the Bonhomme Richard, said the Marines are aware of concerns in the region.
“We don’t want to offend anybody’s sensitivities,” he said. “The alleviation of suffering and the loss of human lives should trump politics. We want to be helpful without being bothersome.”
Helicopters from the Bonhomme Richard began relief flights Tuesday over Sumatra, where more than 100,000 people are feared dead and a million or more are homeless after the catastrophic Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami.
U.S. military helicopters have been key to easing aid bottlenecks and getting supplies out.
But the Marines had hoped to put troops on the ground to provide badly needed manpower for clearing roads and airfields and for building shelters for refugees.
The Bonhomme Richard, carrying more than 1,300 Marines, has three big hovercraft that are capable of landing troops by the hundred on almost any kind of beach. All are fully loaded and ready to go.
For now, though, that capability will not be used. Instead, the ship’s helicopters will continue to pick up supplies from regional airports where they have been piling up and ferry them to isolated villages.
Meanwhile, the USS Mount Rushmore, an amphibious ship carrying a smaller contingent of Marines, is going on to Sri Lanka alone and is expected to reach there by the weekend. An advance party of seven Marines—in civilian clothes—arrived in the southern town of Galle on Tuesday.
Capt. Peter Wilson said he expected at least several hundred Marines to deploy in Galle to provide “limited engineering capability” by repairing roads and other damaged infrastructure as well as help in distributing food.
“This is what Marines do. We like to help people,” he said, citing assistance that U.S. troops gave after a deadly typhoon hit Bangladesh in 1991.
All told, about 20 U.S. military ships and more than 10,000 Marines and sailors have been mobilized for the Asian relief operation, which is the largest the U.S. military has conducted in Asia since the Vietnam War ended in 1975.
Alternate Link: Marines have not yet landed: It's politics
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Apparently most Islamic régimes don't seem to put a high value on the lives of their citizens.
And the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka are the original "suicide bombers".
We should bring the aid ashore, then go kick their a**es!
aren't they the ones who rejected israeli help? geez. you see the truth in situations like this and it ain't pretty....
I think the concept goes back farther.
If they fear our troops that are needed to deliver the support that is need maybe they don't need our help after all to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Oh sorry those were washed out to sea weren't they. Then they need to figure out how to get up and help themselves and, not ask for help if they are going to turn down what is offered to them with an open palm and a palm branch.
I don't really blame the Muslims here.
I mean, how many of us would welcome any Muslim troops in the event of a similar catastrophe here? No thanks - I don't want a bunch of suicide bombers offering their 'help'.
Our Marines should be protecting our nation anyways, rather than wasting their efforts of altruism on people who don't want it.
This is a small part of the price of politics.
Whether it's in the corporate boardroom, or the jungles of Sumatra and Ceylon, politics is a poison.
For the sake of a few votes - in Indonesia's case - the government there would rather their people died than take the hand of the Great Satan and live.
It's a pity that the people of the area will suffer, sicken, and in many cases, die, just so some worthless politician can say that he stood up for national pride and kept the US out of their country.
Change can't come to these nations soon enough.
God forbid anyone should be offended or have their sensibilities tweaked! Meanwhile, people are dying for want of medical care and clean water and food. I pity the poor souls caught in between in these Third World hell holes.
If they don't want the help there, take it somewhere else.
If the Marines don't go ashore, then the "world's most populous Muslim nation" will be less populated..
Ha!!! Sounds like a win win situation.
Look at it this way: They can live off the donations from other Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia & the United Arab Emerites who have almost no wealth to speak of, yet made generous donations totalling what - 1 or 2 million?
There are so many other people there that need our help, why should we care if some terrorist group wants to harm it's alleged constituency by denying our aid.
I agree. Hell, there are other places in need. Tell 'em adios, and then go.
Anyway that the theory, however the media will bash us no matter what. We get there too late with too little or we have exterior motives. Sick, sick!
If it were up to me, I would simply say,thankyouverymuch", and "get your s**t together, and when you're ready to accept help, let us know".
End of story, on to the next location.
Don't even start with the "children" crap. Neither I nor we collectively can save every child. It makes total sense, then, to save those who are not likely to be either dead or killers in ten years.
I doubt it would take 90 days before they start killing the troops.
This refusal of concrete, action-aid is just like a wino - who wants cash not a voucher for food or shelter. Cash money has a number of desireable characteristics that food, muscle power or pure water don't.
First, cash money is fungilbe - i.e. it can be turned into ANYTHING - guns, bullets, crack, fortified wine.
Second, cas money is far easier to skim and hide (although based on past experience - these folks can turn almost anything into a personal profit.)
Third, once the cash is out of sight - everyone forgets where it came from and they can go back to bashing Americans as colonialists and empire builders.
I could go on but I think the point is made.
BUMP!
Ping
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