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The militarization of humanitarian aid Jordan Times, 3/31/03 ONE OF the pillars of this badly planned US-British campaign against Iraq is obviously the militarisation of humanitarian aid. War planners must attach great importance to the fact that aid be delivered by US and British soldiers, if they are willing to openly come to loggerheads with all international relief organisations on this issue. Well, like most other “plans” of this so-called “coalition” waging war against Iraq, the Pentagon's attempts to militarise humanitarian operations are not going to work. The first point to be made is that Iraq is a country being invaded. Both words “country” and “invaded” are to be stressed here. The state of Iraq hinges on a well-organised, though too centralised, capillary network of local authorities. Since 1996, the Iraqi government has put in place an efficient system strong of 45,000 distribution points, from the largest towns to the tiniest villages, to deliver aid purchased under the oil-for-food programme. No foreign army will ever equal that. That Iraqis might be more inclined to tolerate the presence of US-British forces on their land once these forces provide them with food, water and medicine, is another illusion. Iraqis know well that, if it weren't for those very US-British forces, they wouldn't be in need and wouldn't find themselves in want of food, water and medicine, in the first place. Some media have been talking about Washington's war to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis. That war, Washington lost the minute it launched its first bomb on Baghdad. War planners might view their stubborn policy to sideline international humanitarian organisations and hand over control of the relief campaign to the military as necessary propaganda. But in fact, it is a crime. As if military hardware were not having enough of a devastating effect on innocent Iraqi civilians, the US is now resorting to a more sophisticated — and, if possible, more lethal — weapon: Blackmailing people into accepting food from the hands of invading soldiers, or starving to death.
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