Pakistanis impressed and grateful for US aid

[Turborama]

Source: Press Trust of India

PTI Washington, August 26, 2010 -

The people of Pakistan are not only impressed but also grateful to the US for the massive humanitarian relief work being carried by it in the flood-ravaged parts of the country, a top US military official has said. "I think they're impressed. They're grateful. I have seen many occasions when these civilians have approached both the Pakistani military service members as well as our own pilots, crew chiefs, cargo handlers, to express their gratitude, their thanks that someone has come to their assistance," Brigadier Gen Michael Nagata, the US Defense Representative in Pakistan, said.

"They are impressed when they see Pakistani military service members and US military service members working side by side often flying in the same helicopters, working together on these landing zones to haul the cargo out of those helicopters and to shepherd those civilians that need recovery back onto those helicopters, securing them, safeguarding them and taking them back, to return to their loved ones and to their homes or to be reunited with other members of their family," Nagata told Pentagon reporters over a teleconference from the Ghazi air base in Pakistan.

Nagata, who is operating from the Ghazi air force base overseeing the US relief operations, said he and his team has not experienced any security threat whatsoever in the three weeks that they have been operating there.

=snip=

There are currently 15 US Navy and Marine Corps helicopters and their crews conducting relief operations from Ghazi Air Base. They have about 230 US sailors, marines, soldiers and airmen providing both the operational capability into the affected areas as well as necessary maintenance and support.

Read more: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/110285/World/pakistanis-impressed-and-grateful-for-us-aid.html

[OhioChick]

1. Good to hear....

Maybe during this humanitarian mission, we can change some hearts and minds over there. Positive news coming out of something so terrible.

[applegrove]

3. It is great news. And more aid is on the way. I'm usually not a fan of direct aid but in this world

I do want to see an american flag on all aid donated. By helping people we are helping ourselves.

[dkf]

2. Now this is what we should be all about.

If only it were the prime mission for our military to help out in disasters world wide we could truly be that country we always dreamed of.

I have to admit I have felt very cynical about our country lately. This is very heartening indeed.

[sabrina 1]

6. I think the answer is obvious, so it makes you wonder

why we invade and kill people when we could be the biggest force for good on the planet. And the safest national security-wise.

I can only conclude that those who are running this country, whoever they are, want to use the wealth and strength of this country for evil, because war and torture and the theft of resources are evil. And they clearly do not care about the American people. They must laugh at how we fall for their propaganda.

[Desertrose]

11. Pretty sure they do...

laugh at how they control us that is.

But I also have a feeling they are getting a little bit frightened at how so many of us see through their manipulations and lies and realize we're not going to accept them for much longer.

The natives are restless...beware.

[Frisbee]

4. I have to wonder, what makes us safer....

spending a couple of hundred million on relief to an Islamic country that is devastated by a natural disaster, or a billion dollar bomber program. Nevermind which makes more fiscal sense.

[JCMach1]

5. This will help more than anything else we have done in Pakistan

[apnu]

15. Well you do catch more flies with honey... (nt)

[karynnj]

7. Kerry, Biden and Hagel devised what would become the Kerry/Lugar/Berman bill

based on their perception that the US response to an earthquake created the same improvement in how the US was seen in the affected area.

This is a create article, thanks for posting.

[sabrina 1]

8. I read about that, and I wish our policy was focused more on

being the world's best humanitarian responder, than on the world's most deadly invaders. We could reduce terrorism in one generation.

It is a great article.

[Uncle Joe]

9. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Turborama.:thumbsup:

[maxsolomon]

10. Anecdotal

I think we should be doing relief work there, but any goodwill we create will quickly be forgotten in the swirl of drone strikes, taliban massacres, corrupt and incompetent government, cholera, and conspiracy-minded media that blames the US, India, and Britain for every problem.

I don't know how I could get more cynical about Pakistan.

[Turborama]

12. The fact that Faux is broadcast live there by 84 different providers doesn't help our image

Here's the list: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8976871&mesg_id=9004997

"conspiracy-minded media that blames the US, India, and Britain for every problem" - see above.

"taliban massacres" - don't do any damage to our goodwill. That's the Taliban's goodwill that's damaged, if there was any to start with.

"cholera" - an epidemic of which we and several other nations are there trying to help stop.

"corrupt and incompetent government" - 1 of very few civilian governments that have been in place since the partition. The US government is corrupt and not very competent, and look at how long they've been in action.

[maxsolomon]

13. look, i'm just saying it won't do much good for our image there

but it is the ethical thing to do, which would be a stunning change for our foreign policy.

just don't expect any permanent change in the pakistani population's (or the independant media's) opinion of us.

[Turborama]

16. Well, I guess only time will tell

Have you seen this article? http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4514178

I'm a born optimist, but I can see how easy it is to be pessimistic given the previous circumstances.

[Posteritatis]

20. It could be that "the Pakistani population" isn't a monolithic entity. (nt)

[ChromeFoundry]

14. K&R n/t

[ProudDad]

17. I'll bet an actual U.N. Aid and Disaster Relief Corps

would do all of this MUCH more efficiently than military units trained primarily to kill.

What a fucked up system...the only mechanism to give "aid" that the Empire can produce is the killing machine...

Propaganda for the USAmerikan Empire...

:puke:

[ManiacJoe]

18. In the short term you would be wrong.

The military is well optimized for moving large amounts of men and supplies in a short amount of time. They are also the only ones with the needed equipment being readily available and being able to get there in a short amount of time.

In the long term, yes, the civilian agencies are better at the continued support. They are better at dealing with the required politics and are the ones trained in the long term civilian support needs.

[Posteritatis]

19. Uh, when the UN sends relief forces abroad they generally *are* military

Also, there's no organization on this planet more competent at huge-scale logistics than the US military, like it or not.