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Wednesday, January 20, 2010

I'm Going to Need More Explanation

Haiti has been hammered by an earthquake, and some are complaining that we aren't helping fast enough.

So this makes sense:

Food handouts were shut off Tuesday to thousands of people at a tent city here when the main U.S. aid agency said the Army should not be distributing the packages.

It was not known whether the action reflected a high-level policy decision at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) or confusion in a city where dozens of entities are involved in aid efforts.

"We are not supposed to get rations unless approved by AID," Maj. Larry Jordan said.

You can see the potential problem, of course. We just cannot have UNAUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD.
 
If you allow willy nilly UDF, paperwork gets backed up since nobody can file any forms that authorize and verify the distribution of food.
 
And if you allow UDF to continue, with no paperwork filed, then you get organizational disorder!
 
And if organizational disorder spreads, you risk absolute and total chaos!
 
You don't want Haitians to experience chaos, do you? On top of the earthquake and lack of food?
 
So our troops will sit on that food they have, rather than hand it out like some mob, for the good of all.
 
In their wisdom, USAID has not included water in the food distribution ban.