In the battle for hearts and minds, this will do more than any military action:
The Pakistanis rescued Wednesday were among more than 2,700 picked up over the past week by six U.S. choppers that have also delivered bags of flour and biscuits to stranded residents of the flood-ravaged Swat Valley, in the country’s northwest. Nineteen larger helicopters will take over that effort, the U.S. Central Command announced Wednesday night.
“The American assistance has been considerable, it has been prompt, and it has been effective,” said Tanvir Ahmad Khan, a former Pakistani foreign secretary and now chairman of the Islamabad-based Institute of Strategic Studies. “The sheer visibility of American personnel and helicopters working in the field gives a feeling of very welcome assistance from the United States.”
So it’s a good thing that Obama has decided to triple the number of helicopters providing humanitarian assistance to Pakistan. They certainly need it.
The United Nations has estimated that at least one-fifth of the country is flooded, but the scope of damage seems far greater. About 14 million people have been affected by the floods, 6 million of them are children, according to the United Nations children’s organization, usually known as Unicef. Estimates of the dead have ranged between 1,200 and 1,600.
Beyond the daily rising toll of dead, displaced and starving, experts assessing the crisis said much remained to be learned of the short-term relief needs and the longer-term economic challenges that Pakistan faced from the floods.
Entire villages and towns remain underwater. Conventional travel around Pakistan has been disrupted with roads washed away.
Helping Pakistanis survive and recover from these monsoon rains is a smart investment.
