Afghanistan food drop fiasco

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Remember the food drops that the USA was making over Afghanistan immediately after the invasion and how Bushco was trumpeting the drops as "bringing aid to a starving people"?

The reality was that it was a complete disaster

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 27 May 2004 04:57 (twenty-two years ago)

A nonprofit aid organization called Partners International Foundation decided to see what was going on. These guys aren't granola-crunching flower-children – they used to be in Special Forces units of the U.S. military. And they didn't content themselves to sit in an office interviewing people by phone. They went into Afghanistan during the heaviest part of the war to find out what was happening for themselves.
Here's what they discovered:

You know those little packets in vitamin bottles and clothes that are supposed to keep them fresh? Well, many of the little meal packs dropped on Afghanistan contained one of those packets (called a desiccant) to keep the food fresh. Unfortunately, the Afghans aren't familiar with desiccants so they tore them open and ate the powder. Some thought it was medicine, so they noshed it straight. Others figured it was a funky American spice, so they sprinkled it on their beans, rice, or pasta. Lots of Afghans got sick, though we don't know if any deaths occurred. In fact, it's hard to say whether people got sick from chowing down on desiccant or because the food in the packets was usually spoiled.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 27 May 2004 04:58 (twenty-two years ago)

You see, these plastic-wrapped meals weren't made to be dropped from 25,000 to 40,000 feet. As they freefall, the air pressure causes them to expand like balloons, and the cold at those altitudes makes the outer plastic brittle. If they haven't already split during their plummet, they probably will when they hit the ground. Some burst wide open, while others got small tears, letting in water, dirt, and debris. Even in meals where the outer wrapping didn't split, the wrapping of individual pieces of food inside the meal packet was often torn. In all, the team found that over 90% of the meal packets had been damaged and were contaminated by fungus or bacteria. “They emitted a gaseous odor and foul smell,” according to the report. But because the Afghans were so hungry, or because they thought that's how American kibble is supposed to smell, they wolfed down the food anyway. When large numbers of people got sick, the Taliban said that the U.S. was poisoning them. The government countered that the Taliban must've been tainting the food packs to frame the U.S. Neither side was apparently right.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 27 May 2004 04:58 (twenty-two years ago)

*slaps head on forehead, and proceeds to bang head on keyboard*

― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 27 May 2004 05:00 (twenty-two years ago)

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