[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 148 (Wednesday, October 31, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1964]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          FOOD AID FOR AFGHANS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. CYNTHIA A. McKINNEY

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 30, 2001

  Ms. McKINNEY. Mr. Speaker, I know the American people want to help 
the suffering Afghan people. I'm sorry to say that we already stand 
condemned by Medecins Sans Frontieres for conducting nothing more than 
a propaganda campaign regarding our food drops.
  Our brave young men and women are risking their lives to deliver this 
urgently needed food. But how will we be judged by this new blunder?
  I'd like to ask you to take a look at this. . . .
  And this. . . .
  To more than just a casual observer, they might even get mistaken for 
being the same thing!
  And that's what's got the US military quaking in their boots. Can you 
imagine the horror if this one gets mistaken for this one?
  Well, one is life . . .
  And the other one is death . . .
  The squarish one is the food . . .
  The roundish one is a cluster bomb.
  That's what the poor, starving people of Afghanistan must now contend 
with. The US military is dropping little notes to inform people not to 
pick up this one, the cluster bomb thinking it's food because if they 
pick up this one, which is the wrong one, they'll get blown to 
smithereens.
  Isn't it bad enough that our military is dropping cluster bombs on 
Afghanistan, anyway?
  Well, it's really bad because in the war in Bosnia then-Air Force 
Chief of Staff, Major General Michael Ryan, refused to allow cluster 
bombs to be dropped because of the civilian deaths associated with 
cluster bombs, especially that of children.
  But now our Air Force refuses to issue such a directive, it appears, 
as the US comes under fire from humanitarian organizations around the 
world for dropping cluster bombs on the people of Afghanistan.
  I have written a letter to our President asking that we please 
refrain from using cluster bombs. But a funny thing about those cluster 
bombs. They have little bomblets that look like this!
  And so when little kids see them, they think they're a toy or 
something.
  Now, Afghanistan already has 10 million landmines and the unexploded 
bomblets from the cluster bombs add to that number.
  So now if the food looks like this, what will hungry children do? But 
if the food looks like this, and the bombs look like this what will 
hungry people do? The military bets that they will try to find 
something to eat.
  And so the Pentagon is concerned that people who are hungry for food 
that looks like this will confuse it with bomblets that look like this.
  The Pentagon is now worried that hungry Afghan people will try to eat 
the bombs thinking it's the American food. So the Pentagon has sent 
messages to the Afghani people.
  One message says, ``As you may have heard, the Partnership of Nations 
is dropping yellow humanitarian daily rations. Although it is unlikely, 
it is possible that not every bomb will explode on impact. These bombs 
are a yellow color and are can-shaped.''
  Another Pentagon message is more to the point: ``Please, please 
exercise caution when approaching unidentified yellow objects in areas 
that have been recently bombed.''
  Mr. Speaker, not only do innocent Afghans have to worry about the 
Taliban . . . not only do they have to worry about landmines left from 
the last war . . . not only do they have to worry about starving to 
death . . . and an approaching winter . . . they now have to worry 
about bombs that look like food.
  I think I've heard it all now, Mr. Speaker.

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