An incredible, desperate aid drop by a U.S. Navy Seahawk into a crowd in Haiti. Good luck all.
Christopher Albon is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in armed conflict, public health, human security, and health diplomacy.
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Over at Small Wars Journal there is a 2-page article on humanitarian aid by the US military. It is written by a retired US colonel (Gary Anderson) who has experience in these things. It says:
“Whatever you do, don’t do air drops – you are likely to kill more people than you help by crushing them with pallets or by starting riots.”
Why don’t they learn?
Thanks Kerim, and I completely agree. Stuff like that makes humanitarian’s blood boil.
Um, that’s not an airdrop, that’s just expedited unloading. Airdrop = 3000 feet, unlodaing = 3 feet. When you can’t land because of the crowd, and there’s no suitable landing zone within access of the crowd, this is a field expedient means of getting supplies to people.
Are you going to tell your skipper (and CNN) that “we couldn’t find a safe place to land so we brought the stuff back”.
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