Not So Much Ineffective As Stupid

Digby points out that in additions to the many screwups in the War on Terror we have rarely missed the opportunity to miss an opportunity. The biggest opportunity of 2005 is passing away, as the recovery in Pakistan tries desparately to get food and shelter to people who survived the earthquake there.

I thought we were tapped out after Katrina, but we managed to still money to the Pakistan releief. Given the onset of winter, and the fact that there are still a lot of people that still haven't been reached months after the earthquake, they need more. From Digby quoting Husain Haqqani and Kenneth Ballen of the the Carnegie Endowment:

For the tsunami, 4,000 helicopters were donated to ferry life-saving aid to stricken areas, and in Pakistan just 70 - even though there are almost three times as many people who need the food and shelter to survive than after the tsunami.

International humanitarian assistance doesn't just save lives, it helps fight the war on terror. According to post-tsunami polls conducted by the Maryland-based, non-profit group Terror Free Tomorrow, support for Osama bin Laden dropped by half as a result of international assistance to tsunami victims in the world's largest Muslim nation.

Admittedly we had to clean up after Katrina, but there are a lot of ways we could have led and helped the effort. But, like so many times before, our leaders failed to do the right thing.

Posted 6:39 PM by Jon Link