Effective battle plan: Fighting the good fight
January 5, 2005
It's a beautiful sight, really, in its own depressing way: U.S. military helicopters not spraying bullets on anyone.
Not advancing any invasion. Not occupying anybody's land.
Just flying overhead in a time of massive tragedy with no purpose at all - but to help suffering people and to save human lives.
Most of which just happen to be the lives of Muslims.
This particular scene was yesterday in Jakarta, capital of the nation with the largest Muslim population on Earth. But Americans back home and people everywhere have the chance to watch on TV now as the world's most powerful military turns its awesome force on a mission of inarguable good.
If only Iraq had come out like that!
And you almost guarantee the result of this American tsunami aid, including the military component: It will actually help our position in the world. Imagine that! Soothe our enemies. Calm our friends. Do far more for our place in the world than invading and occupying Baghdad, Fallujah and Mosul ever will.
Will it be enough to change the Muslim world's deep suspicion of America? Of course not. That runs far deeper than bad PR. But the only way for good to ever trump bad is for the good acts to begin right now.
And it wasn't just American copters in the Indonesian sky yesterday.
Off that ravaged country's northern coast was the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard, assaulting no one. It was joined by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, saving, not risking, lives. More Navy ships were on the way, including the USS Fort McHenry, carrying a warehouse load of medical supplies.
All of them, just showing up to help.
Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of Hawaii-based Pacific Command, said yesterday that, so far, 45 U.S. helicopters are involved in the South Asia tsunami rescue mission. Around the clock, they are shuttling back and forth between ship deck and land base, carrying supplies in and injured people out. There's no better way to the job when roads are washed out, trucks can't even move and there's nowhere to land a plane.
"Helicopters are a tremendous advantage because, of course, they don't have the same restrictions as fixed-wing aircraft in terms of how many you can have on the ground at a time," Fargo said.
In all, Pentagon officials calculated, 13,000 U.S. military personnel are now doing relief work from the South Asian tsunami, 11,600 aboard ships and about 1,000 at an air base in Thailand. Smaller numbers are scattered across Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malaysia.
If the fight that matters now is for the hearts and minds of a suspicious Islamic world, then one lesson is growing clearer by the day:
Sending aid is a whole lot more effective than sending bullets, brigades and bombs.
Cheaper too, whatever these tsunami relief efforts cost. At least they're taking us in the right direction.
And more help, Adm. Fargo said yesterday, is on the way.
The 1,000-bed hospital ship, USNS Mercy, will soon shove off from San Diego, as soon as a few quick modifications and personnel switches are made.
"You know," the admiral said in a statement that should be typed up and sent to every commander in the American military, "these hospital ships were normally used for trauma in combat. But we think that there may be an opportunity to configure the Mercy with a humanitarian assistance crew that might be staffed significantly by nongovernmental organizations and people that have significant medical capability and can provide relief in other forms."
Now you're thinking, admiral. Yes, there is more than one way to fight a war.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, that reluctant warrior from the bog-down in Iraq, seemed to grasp the concept immediately, as he was arriving in Jakarta and helicopters were buzzing the sky. His trip was described as a "fact-finding mission." He already seemed to have the basics in hand.
These pictures of U.S. helicopters delivering aid - not bullets - would pay dividends, he said, all across the Muslim world.
Finally, a counter-image for American troops in bunkers, belatedly armored Humvees and Abu Ghraib.
"It dries up those pools of dissatisfaction, which might give rise to terrorist activities," Powell said after his first meeting with Indonesian politicians.
It's not quite that simple, of course. Long-held perceptions don't change overnight. But it was, at least, a start.