It's as an obscene a scenario as you can imagine.  Year after year, Afghan villages to which aid can easily be delivered are faced with starvation because the regions are peaceful and there is no need for Pentagon press releases about winning "hearts and minds."  

BBC reports:

"More than 2.5 million people face hunger in drought-stricken areas of Afghanistan despite billions of dollars of aid that have poured into the country in recent years, aid agencies say. Many villagers have only limited supplies of food left as winter looms...Aid agencies have been concerned for some time about the amount of aid directed towards conflict areas of Afghanistan.  Much of it is designed to win hearts and minds through "quick impact projects" in insurgency-plagued provinces in the south and east of the country. According to a US Congressional study, 80% of US aid has gone to troubled regions....For example, last year Kandahar province received four times more US aid per head than Bamiyan, while the equally quiet neighbouring Daykundi province saw five times less."

BBC says the policy of  letting people starve in the north and focusing on the southern, Pashtun regions is "roundly defended" by the US ambassador to Kabul, Ryan Crocker.  Crocker says:

"We have put substantial assistance into the south. You know, we are trying to end an insurgency here and that means, in part, funding a better future and giving people alternatives."

Getting aid to the villages faced with starvation is easy because security is not as big a problem.  The US manages to get food aid through to much "hotter" zones just fine.  Even in winter, airdrop capacity and technology is such that cargo planes can drop pallets of food and ammunition within a quarter mile of a combat outpost in all but worst of weather.   But ordinary, non-combatant Afghans who are starving in the snow don't rate this kind of attention (although I have no doubt that rank-and-file American soldiers would vie for these missions.)

Ten years after the occupation began,  Afghans at times are still often literally reduced to eating grass.

(Note: Bimayan Province is where our new little friends, the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, are from.)  

David Swanson of War is a Crime reports:

"While the “Super” Committee works on the federal budget for FY 2013 and beyond, under the radar, the Congress is moving forward with another huge Defense budget for FY 2012. When it returns from Thanksgiving break, the Senate will be voting on a $682.5 billion Defense Authorization bill."

2.5 million are in imminent danger.  $2 worth of foodstuffs, protein/vitamin-enriched flour, cooking oil, etc., is a reasonable cost per person since most people are already living on less than a dollar a day.  That's 2 times 2.5 million times 90 days or about a half billion dollars for a solid commitment to warding off hunger during the three harshest months of the winter.  We spend $10 billion per month in Afghanistan on military operations.  So the entire food part of the program would cost less what we spend in 2 days in fuel, ammo, and the cost of maintaining the occupation.

2 days.  Obama should ask Congress for an emergency appropriation and begin relief operations immediately.

The kicker is that the insurgency has steadily spread from the south, the "conflict areas," to the north, and Washington and the generals can't seem to figure out why. Why, why are Afghans so cynical about the US presence?  Now there is fighting where there was never fighting before!

When one looks at the dynamics, one thing starts to become perfectly clear: this is no recipe for winning a war.  Keep the masses in hunger and starvation, unleash brutal, indiscriminate force, such as drone attacks which kill mostly civilians, in the chase for a few insurgents, and make sure the Taliban is well-funded by the Pentagon itself through pay-offs for allowing military supply convoys to pass through.  This is a perfect recipe for keeping any war going.  

And why not?  In 2006 the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy reported that "stock price gains for defense contractors have averaged 48 percent" more than the overall stock market.  CEOs of major defense contracting corporations are not only in Occupy Wall Street's top one percent, but in the top .1%.

Investing Daily gushed last year:

The Afghanistan Troop Surge Means Profits!

the likelihood that the U.S. will end up the loser in Afghanistan is a long-term worry. In the short-term, military contractors doing business in Afghanistan will make a boatload of money...  - "How To Profit From the War in Afghanistan"

In 1934 Marine General and double Medal of Honor winner Smedley Butler took off his uniform and traveled the country to tell Americans what he had learned from his career.  The title of his book and speech was "War is a Racket."  Butler until his dying day shook people by the scruff and begged them to understand what he had seen:

   "War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives... A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."

The failure of direct aid in the north is a microcosm of the greater, almost deliberate neglect on the part of the US to support the many avenues available, over the last ten years, for delivering meaningful assistance to Afghans wishing to rebuild the country's war-torn basic infrastructure, and instead directing billions toward foreign contractors and their subsidiaries who soak up 40-60 percent of the funds for profits and overhead, so that little of that aid actually reaches Afghans or goes toward projects that they themselves want and need.  

Much more effective would be fully funding the indigenous Afghan National Solidarity Program (NSP), which has thousands of local projects voted on by community councils which are ready for ground-breaking but lack funds.  The NSP has been found by the US Special Inspector General to be honest and efficient.  These are the kinds of projects which put Afghans on the path to sustainability by rebuilding vital parts of the traditional agrarian economy: water projects, canal clearing and irrigation, and secondary (unpaved) road improvement. It is a myth that development cannot be done in rural regions because of security concerns, a myth that is used to excuse years of abysmal neglect.  Dr. Greg Mortenson says:

“Aid can be done anywhere, including where Taliban are...But it’s imperative the elders are consulted, and that the development staff is all local, with no foreigners.”

The UN World Food Programme country director in Afghanistan, Louis Imbleau, in the BBC article is adamant about the looming food crisis in the country where fuel costs alone amount to at least $300,000 per year for every single US soldier on the ground.  Speaking of the effects of malnutrition on those children who survive, Imbleau says:

"it's irreversible and should just not be allowed to happen. It should not be allowed to happen."

Obama ask Congress for an emergency appropriation and begin relief operations immediately.

White House
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414

Contact Congress
Switchboard: 202-224-3121

RAWA (2008): "Hunger Could Kill More People in Afghanistan Than the Taliban"

For more information of Afghan development go to Jobs for Afghans.

"To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate." - Article 55 of the Geneva Convention

Yesterday I called for action by Congress and the President to head off the kind of winter starvation in Afghanistan which has already happened in previous years, with solid reports from Samangan in 2008, in Tulak in 2005, and less well-documented but nevertheless entirely plausible, and frequent, reports from other provinces.  

Now that we know that the UN is asking for about what we spend in two weeks on combat operations to head off winter starvation  in the south and south-east, a question arises: are we in violation of international law, the Geneva Conventions, which requires a power which has occupied a country to at the very least "bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate"?  

Hunger and chronic malnutrition are one thing, but rapid starvation unto death, of this kind, are another:

Kandahar 2008

This is not just any old Third World country, where people sometimes starve to death, and that's that.  This is one we have occupied with soon to be over 100,000 of our troops, billions of dollars worth of military aircraft and resources, and the fastest reaction forces in the world.

Congress is aware.  We've made sure of that, buy direct appeals to specific staff at the following offices. They are not responsible, but their bosses, and the president, certainly are.   So the question comes down to the wording in Article 55, "To the fullest extent of the means available to it." Since overland travel is becoming impossible into remote regions, due to both snow and insecurity, we are talking about airdrops of food, blankets, and supplies to the vulnerable areas detailed by the UN.  

According to my friends at the local VFW post, in clear flying weather, cargo planes can drop pallet loads by parachure within a target of a couple of football fields, better if the pilot is a hotshot, or lucky.  We can put a bomb down any chimney in Afghanistan if we think there is one of them Taliban there.  Anyone who says the Air Force is not capable of this mission, given the right resources, is going to be arguing with an Air Force brat.  You bet they can.

The loads are marked bright colors so they can be seen from a distance, proximate to any village.  I'd say the question of whether it is possible is pretty much settled, given clear flying weather.  Which means, we do it now, not wait for a blizzard.  Pilots can weigh in here.  Given a GPS coordinate, and clear skies, is this do-able, within a few hundred yards of any village?  Historians may want to know.  Please continue your calls to the following good staffers who have told their bosses of the impending crisis, so they can tell their bosses that this is not going away.  That the American people now know what the Congress and the President are about to preside over. Forward this post to them or refer them to JobsForAfghans.org In previous years plausible deniability could perhaps be maintained.  We didn't do anything, because we didn't know.  Not this time.  

Best of all, as an Air Force brat I can assure you that there is not a flyer in the Force who would not eagerly jump at this mission, and say "CAN DO!" I know these guys.  Announcing: Operation Enduring Friendship.  

Sent to the following members:

Dear Congress Member,

We demand that a likely food crisis looming in parts of Afghanistan this winter be averted.  If the Congress can pass $100 billion package for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, it can pass a $870 million emergency assistance package to head off starvation.  

The person to initiate contact with at the UN Assistance Mission in Kabul in order to coordinate accounts toward which the funding should go is:

Dominic Medley
Tel: 93 0790 00 6292; 39 0831 24 6292; 1 212 963 2668 ext: 6292
Email: medleyd-AT-un.org

In addition, we ask that a true civilian solution which targets the poorest of Afghans through the National Solidarity Program be implemented, as the crisis in Afghanistan is driven largely by economic conditions.  We detail our proposed legislation HERE, the Afghan Stabilization Through a Cash-for-Work Initiative Act.

It has happened all too often in past winters that Afghan were allowed to starve.  This is unacceptable in a country which we have occupied now going on 9 years.  We ask that Congress immediately turn its attention to this matter, so that planning an airlift of food and supplies can begin.  We want Afghans to see America going the last mile in giving help when it is needed most.  We do not want to be remembered only for bombs and bullets.

Thank you.
Ralph Lopez
Jobs for Afghans
List of co-signers at website.

Member                          Foreign Policy Staff Member      Phone
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY)             Ann Vaughan                   202-225-6506
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-OH)       Drew Simon                   202-224-2152
Rep. Jerry Costello (D-IL)       David Gillies                   202-225-5661
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI)        Mary Yoshioko                   202-224-3934
Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN)             Nathaniel Milazzo           202-225-3021
Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY)         Michael Ryan                    202-225-3335
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)             Fatima Sumar                   202-224-2742
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)        Jake Sciandra                    202-224-5344
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)     Andy Friedman               202-224-3224
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN)             Derrick Nayo                    202-224-5641
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)     Charles Dujon                    202-225-0773
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)             Scott Exner                    202-225-2661
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)     Amy Vossbrinck                    202-225-5871
Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY)     Jennifer Prather            202-225-4706
Rep. Adam Schiff ((D-CA)     Timothy Bergreen            202-225-4176
Rep. David Obey (D-WI)             Anne Georges                    202-225-3365
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)     Ross Nodurft                    202-224-5824
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI)     Brian Chelcun                    202-224-5323
Rep. Mike Capuano (D-MA)     Christina Tsafoulias            202-225-5111
Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA)             Marta McLellan Ross            202-228-5243
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN)     Peter Frosch                    202-225-6631
Rep. Walt Minnick (D-ID)      Adam Elias                    202-225-6611
Rep. Steven Rothman (D-NJ)     Jonathan Moore                    202-225-5061
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT)     Tim Riser                    202-224-4242

There's more...

This time of year is always bad in Afghanistan.  It's when the passes get snowed in and people starve.  Rapidly.  

This is in contrast to the norm.  According to the UN, 35% of Afghans do not meet the daily caloric intake requirement required to avoid malnutrition.  Translation, this many Afghans are pretty much starving slowly.  This could help account for the average lifespan, the shortest in the world, of 43.  We're talking about a speed-up in the process, which, combined with unimaginable cold at these mountain altitudes, makes people drop like flies.  Especially children.  It happened in Samangan in 2008, in Tulak in 2005, and many other provinces where the world's fourth-poorest people expire without note by the wider world.  

It is disgusting that our government would rather talk about "offensive military operations" than this.  But then, people might catch on to why there is an insurgency, fix it, and their nice little war would be over.

At a UN press conference this week it was revealed that it is in danger of happening again, this time in the southern and south-east provinces.  Twenty percent of food aid has not reached it's target.  The financial shortage amounts to about US$ 870 million, what we spend on military operations 2 weeks.  This is the time we can show Afghans we are for real, and will never let another single child starve and freeze if we can help it.  Congress must pass emergency legislation as fast as it passed the legislation funding bullets and bombs.  Otherwise we are damned, and deserve it.

The UN office with knowledge of the specific valleys and villages at risk will be put into contact with the following congressional offices, selected for appropriations powers, foreign policy seats, or other factors.  We can never now say that the world did not know. OCHA, the humanitarian relief arm of the UN, estimates that on non-food assistance, i.e. things like blankets, tents, and first aid kits, "We're about 3,800 kits short of what we anticipate we need." 

Security is an issue when considering overland travel in some areas, and so are impassable roads. But in the winter, fighting always slows down as snows arrive, and travel grinds down to only the most necessary. In 2005 in Taluk, the problem was, too-little, too-late.  The food and supplies should be immediately airdropped. For once the food should arrive before people begin to starve, before a blizzard sets in which prevents flying.  In the above-linked report on Tulak:

Some private aid workers privately have expressed frustration at the slow response to what they believe would have been an avoidable situation if the airlifted food had been made available earlier.

In addition, our demand to congressmen will include the passage of the kind of civilian aid package for the entire country which would make a difference, which would amount to about what we spend in one month on combat operations.  The mechanism would be the National Solidarity Program run by Afghan community development councils (more than 22,000 at the local level) and the World Bank.  World Bank President Richard Zoellick said:

"The National Solidarity Program...empowers more than 22,000 elected, village-level councils to decide on their development priorities -- from building a school to irrigation to electrification. So far, the program has reached more than 19 million Afghans in 34 provinces, with grants averaging $33,000. Development owned by the community can survive amid conflict: When an NSP-funded school was attacked in August 2006, the villagers defended it."

It's time to start anew with Afghans.  The Berlin Airlift in 1948 saved hundreds of thousands of Germans from freezing and starvation.  Of course there was a political element, as two superpowers, the US and the USSR, jockeyed to shape the map after WWII.  But it worked, and the fact remains that decades later this is still what many Europeans remember about America.  Let the help in the winter of 2010 be what many young Afghans years from now remember about America, not a surge in troops. Listed below are the congressmembers' foreign policy staffers who have received this letter, with a request that they forward it to their members, in their email in-box this morning.  Please call to reiterate the importance of acting on this immediately. The subject line reads: "Emergency Legislation: Stop Starvation in Afghanistan This Winter Now." Let's get into the real American Christmas spirit, and show that the generals do not represent all of us.

Dear Congress Member,

We at Jobs for Afghans demand that a likely food crisis looming in parts of Afghanistan this winter be averted.  If the Congress can pass $100 billion package for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, it can pass a $870 million emergency assistance package to head off starvation.  

The person to initiate contact with at the UN Assistance Mission in Kabul in order to coordinate accounts toward which the funding should go is:

Dominic Medley
Tel: 93 0790 00 6292; 39 0831 24 6292; 1 212 963 2668 ext: 6292
Email: medleyd-AT-un.org

In addition, we ask that a true civilian solution which targets the poorest of Afghans through the National Solidarity Program be implemented, as the crisis in Afghanistan is driven largely by economic conditions.  We detail our proposed legislation HERE, the Afghan Stabilization Through a Cash-for-Work Initiative Act.

It has happened all too often in past winters that Afghan were allowed to starve.  This is unacceptable in a country which we have occupied now going on 9 years.  We ask that Congress immediately turn its attention to this matter, so that planning an airlift of food and supplies can begin.  We want Afghans to see America going the last mile in giving help when it is needed most.  We do not want to be remembered only for bombs and bullets.

Thank you.
Ralph Lopez
Jobs for Afghans

Member                          Foreign Policy Staff Member      Phone
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY)             Ann Vaughan                   202-225-6506
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-OH)       Drew Simon                   202-224-2152
Rep. Jerry Costello (D-IL)       David Gillies                   202-225-5661
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI)        Mary Yoshioko                   202-224-3934
Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN)             Nathaniel Milazzo           202-225-3021
Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY)         Michael Ryan                    202-225-3335
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)             Fatima Sumar                   202-224-2742
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)        Jake Sciandra                    202-224-5344
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)     Andy Friedman               202-224-3224
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN)             Derrick Nayo                    202-224-5641
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)     Charles Dujon                    202-225-0773
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)             Scott Exner                    202-225-2661
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)     Amy Vossbrinck                    202-225-5871
Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY)     Jennifer Prather            202-225-4706
Rep. Adam Schiff ((D-CA)     Timothy Bergreen            202-225-4176
Rep. David Obey (D-WI)             Anne Georges                    202-225-3365
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)     Ross Nodurft                    202-224-5824
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI)     Brian Chelcun                    202-224-5323
Rep. Mike Capuano (D-MA)     Christina Tsafoulias            202-225-5111
Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA)             Marta McLellan Ross            202-228-5243
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN)     Peter Frosch                    202-225-6631
Rep. Walt Minnick (D-ID)      Adam Elias                    202-225-6611
Rep. Steven Rothman (D-NJ)     Jonathan Moore                    202-225-5061
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT)     Tim Riser                    202-224-4242

Starvation in Kandahar Province, 2008, video evidence

WHERE DO YOUR CONGRESSMAN'S MILITARY CONTRACTOR CAMPAIGN DOLLARS COME FROM? Go to Maplight.org ("Defense") 

There's more...

With no photographs or videocameras allowed due to strict security measures, RAWA representative "Soya" of one of the leading women's humanitarian organizations in Afghanistan told a Boston audience that even within a thousand feet of the presidential palace in Kabul, children are starving.  This is the taboo topic for the media, because it reveals the big lie behind media coverage of the insurgency, the idea that it is based on anything but economic desperation.  There is 40% unemployment, the Taliban pays $8 a day, and it's the only job in town.  People hate the Taliban.  They cut off heads and hands.  But when your kids are starving you take what work is available.  

Now that Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize, we might reflect on who else has won that prize: George C. Marshall, author of the Marshall Plan which saved Europeans from starvation after World War II, and prevented some Western European nations from falling into the hands of communist militants and parties which were making rapid gains amid the economic chaos.  

At large events "Soya" speaks behind sunglasses and a scarf up to her nose, to protect her identity.  Both her parents were killed by the Taliban, as was her predecessor in her job, which is coordinator for this group which builds orphanages, wells, schools for girls, housing, and clinics across Afghanistan.  She arguably could win the title of Bravest Woman in the World.  All five-feet-one of her.  She works where your enemies mean business when they tell you to stop, yet she continues the work because the children must be fed.

At an anti-war rally the next day Soya thanked some of the soldiers on the stage who are war resisters, refusing to deploy to Afghanistan, for "refusing to kill our children and our people." It was an amazing moment.  I had the privilege of meeting her up close after her speech, out of disguise, and can report in passing that she is a stunningly beautiful woman.

The idea that it is impossible to get help to these people on the ground because of Afghan corruption is overblown and used as an excuse to ignore the problem, since if you solved the problem a large number of Taliban who fight for the wage would lay down their arms and stop fighting, which is not profitable for the military-industrial complex which Eisenhower warned about.  Soya said don't give us bombs to eat, give us food and a way to rebuild.  Robert Greenwald is circulating a petition calling for a civilian solution to stability.  This is the film-maker who blew the lid off war profiteering in "Iraq for Sale."

There is a solution. Get money to the poorest people in a way which "tunnels" through the corruption, so that they don't have to depend on the Taliban for the $8 a day they pay for insurgent work, and they will turn on the Taliban themselves. The Taliban is hated by most of the population as it ruled only by fear, not any popular consent.

We identified one functional ministry of the Karzai government which has done the work of building more than 25,000 community development councils (CDCs) which work with the villages and the elders on work projects which benefit the communities, not corrupt contractors like Halliburton or Louis Berger Group, or corrupt Afghan warlords. Details are in our White Paper "Stabilizing Afghanistan Through a Cash-for-Work Initiative."

It was humbling and inspiring to be standing next to this tiny woman who faces sudden death in her country on a daily basis because she will not stop what she is doing.  Her message to the American people was: No troop escalation.  Troops out.  Please don't bomb us, help us, the children are starving.  For her speaking tour dates go HERE.  With the support of many American women's organizations, she'll be in Los Angeles this Wednesday, and soon New York, San Francisco, and Providence.

 "There is a low percentage of the total Taliban force who we  would call ideologically driven. We refer to them as Tier 1 people who  believe their ideology, that what they're doing is right. The vast  majority of Taliban fighters are essentially economically  disadvantaged young men." --Col. Tom Collins, PBS Frontline, April 2, 2007,

"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."-Major General Smedley Butler, USMC (double Medal of Honor) 1935

Starvation in Afghanistan

Contact congress

Watch new film "Afghan Marshall Plan: Winning With Jobs Not Guns" (26 minutes)

There's more...

A crop-borne fungus that targets wheat, named Ug99 because it was first identified in Uganda in 1999, has become one of the primary threats to global food security. Newfound virulence in the evolving stem-rust strain suggests the fungus could destroy as much as 80% of the world's most widely grown crop: wheat.

Science! Once again we hear that 'the Sky is Falling!'

the increased virulence seen in East African samples of Ug99 has caused concern the fungus could cause a global collapse of the human food supply.

These people. When will they stop?

Besides. Elisabeth Hasselbeck, in her new blockbuster book on eating Gluten free (and we all thought she was just a dumb Republican echo with yellow hair), will teach the world to eat non-wheat!

And those who are savvy can even make a buck on this. Ain't American free enterprise great?

Fear that the fungus will cause widespread damage has caused short-term price spikes on world wheat markets. Famine has been averted thus far, but experts say it's only a matter of time.

References:
http://www.casavaria.com/cafesentido/200 9/06/23/3183/ug99-stem-rust-fungus-could -wipe-out-80-of-world-wheat-crop/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/23 /elisabeth-hasselbeck-sued_n_219624.html

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/ world/la-sci-wheat-rust14-2009jun14,0,17 51268.story

There's more...