US to pull out of Asian tsunami relief op's The US wants to pull its military out of Asian tsunami relief operations as soon as possible, Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has said. Mr Wolfowitz, speaking as he toured the disaster zone, said the task would be handed over to regional governments. He said the ultimate goal was still to alleviate suffering and provide relief supplies to disaster victims. After visiting Thailand, Mr Wolfowitz travelled to Indonesia's Aceh province, the area worst-hit by the tsunami. More than 162,000 people were killed in the disaster throughout the Indian Ocean region. In Indonesia, the death toll has climbed to more than 110,000, most of them killed in Aceh. "We'd like to be out of this business as soon as we responsibly can," the deputy defence secretary told reporters in Bangkok on Saturday. He said the US military had "a lot of other work to do" and would be ending its relief efforts "as soon as our military folks can pass these responsibilities on to other folks".
Re: US to pull out of Asian tsunami relief op's Ah that must be the invasion and illegal occupation of Iraq!
Indonesia had ordered all US military to leave by the end of March anyway. They're a bit paranoid, especially with all the recent activity and new bases set up by the US in Asia recently. The comments by the US seem to be face-saving. And add to that the accusations made against Jakarta for previous human rights abuse allegations - up until the Tsunami, foreign tourists/journalists/military etc were heavily restricted from visiting the Aceh region. I hope that the chaos that the region will be in for the next few years will not make things much worse than they have been of late. For once ( ), I would fully support the US forces being somewhere where they are not welcome.
I see what you're saying, but the US and Indonesia seem to be competing with how many human rights abuses they can notch up, both as bad as each other. For once, the United Fascist Fatherland seems to have been doing something good for a change - and the ordinary people in Indonesia do need that help at the moment.
