Fighting terrorism with humanitarian aid

By Eric Shilland, of Bangor, Maine, a doctor of osteopathic medicine who did part of his residency at Eastmoreland Hospital in Portland. [This item was written several days ago, so a couple of figures are slightly out of date. -Ed.]

I'm not sure how many of you have been paying attention to the tragedy currently unfolding in the Indian Ocean following the earthquakes and tidal waves that have struck the region. Currently the latest death toll is over 50,000 and still climbing, add on the wave of pandemic diseases that is inevitable and impending and the toll will be hundreds of thousands.

The United States announced $15 million in aid today to the region. I'd just like to point out that that figure is currently one-ten-thousandth of what has been spent in Iraq to date, not including what surprise price tags are impending when W starts "spending his political capital"

Now what does this have to do with the Indian Ocean you ask? Well more than "The War on Terrorism" has to do with Iraq I can assure you. Take a look at the nations involved in this latest natural disaster...

• Indonesia- the world's most populous muslim nation, home to Jemaah Islamiah, Al Qaeda's South Asian counterpart, home of the Bali bombings, tenuous American ally and a burgeoning front on the war on terror.
• Sri Lanka- island nation in the throes of an ongoing civil war, home to the Tamil Tigers, the founders of the suicide bomber.
• Southern Thailand- home to the muslim thai minority, which has been brutally suppressed (hundreds of unarmed civilians slaughtered in mosques) by government troops with US anti-terrorist training.
• Burma- Who knows what is happening behind the Burmese curtain, cause they sure won't tell us.
• Somalia- Another hotbed of American interest to stop the spread of global terrorism, the reason for placement of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa in next door Djibouti.

So.

At this point I would like to wax eloquent on the root causes of terrorism, but am starting to grow tired of this endeavor and want to get on with my main point, so will leave this a relatively brief and unsupported statement. Terrorism is an act of desperation, which is made possible only by the horrible living conditions some are forced to live in and instigated by the prescence of a target which can be made to appear the scape goat of a given ideology.Terrorism cannot be effectively combated with conventional forces but only by removing the social pressures which drive and fuel it.

Which brings us round to my point. This tragedy of epic proportions offers the United States the opportunity to actually serve as it sees itself, the steward of the world, to help those in need because it possesses the resources and wherewithal to actually do it. Imagine for a moment towns and villages that were saved from further devastation by the prompt arrival of water purification systems, emergency sanitation, mosquito netting and tents. Pandemics of dengue, malaria, cholera, typhoid avoided. Tens of thousands of lives saved. All brought by US aid organizations. Help in rebuilding critical infrastructure, food supplies for those whose fishing boats have been reduced to kindling and fields have been salted with seawater. One would think that the recipients of this aid would be a little more favorable than if we leveled their houses, littered the landscape with depleted uranium, and caused massive water, fuel and electricity shortages. This is our target audience. This is an opportunity to affect world opinion and actually show the muslim world that America is not "The Great Satan" but actually capable and willing to lend a compassionate hand to those of the muslim faith (and others).

Would it work? Probably. Is it cost effective? A lot more so than our current plan. Is it a better way of living? You betcha. Are we going to do it? No. Our money is already earmarked for spreading more devastation around the world, for eliminating taxes on the wealthiest of Americans, and for short-term costs to dismantle what social protections we have in this country. But it's just a thought.