NEWS: Doctors Without Borders Pulls Out of Afghanistan

POLITICS: Doctors Without Borders Pulls Out of Afghanistan

Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) announced yesterday that it is withdrawing from Afghanistan following the June 2 killing of five of its aid workers.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the deliberate targeting of MSF staff, stating that such aid organizations work to further the interests of the United States and are therefore legitimate targets. MSF denies this accusation, and itself accuses the US and its allies of attempting to co-opt the work of MSF and other aid organizations in order to benefit from these organizations’ goodwill.

That definately is terrible news.

Wtf...outlasted the Soviet invasion and the Taliban...and now?

So the US is horning in on MSF's goodwill mission just to achieve its political ends?

Sheesh. Imagine their outrage if the US declined to extend humanitarian aid.

that is certainly tragic news.

as for "Imagine their outrage if the US declined to extend humanitarian aid", i think it was the context of the u.s. involvement that was the issue, not whether or not the us gave aid to a country it had just bombed the shit out of.

Sooooo, what are you saying? When is it OK for the US to give humanitarian aid, and not OK? What's this "context" you're looking for? And should we have the medieval Taliban determine that?

I dont blame MSF personnel for leaving and not wanting to be killed. I do get kind of pissed that they blame the US's attempt to aid the same people MSF is trying to help, for why MSF was attacked, and their assumption that any aid we extend is cynical and politically motivated.

[Edited on Jul 29, 2004 by stockula]

But as we've reminded ourselves these last few days, you get pissed off at various things where it turns out you don't have the first blind clue of what's actually going on.

the us allying themselves with MSF is not okay, as the only cynical and politically motivated intervention here is the us attempt to vicariously borrow the goodwill that MSF has worked so hard for.

how can you see a humanitarian organisation refusing to give humanitarian aid as cynical and politically motivated. what have they got to gain, politically from disassociating themselves with the us military. the logic in your leap of faith is astounding.

what they have to gain, literally, is not getting shot.

You seem to miss the point entirely because of your partisanship. Perhaps, the US's attempt to politicize the Doctors apparently created a situation which was too dangerous. They made it through the Soviet Invasion and the Taliban without attacks...because they were apolitical. Obviously things have changed and they feel it's no longer safe...and it's not because we were just aiding the same people...see vietnamization. We want to win hearts and minds and we went to far...now a legitimate aid organization is looked upon as an American political device. This is the reality, no matter how un-involved the Military really was in Doctors without Boarders. Now we are without some serious help...

What aid would that be? MSF didn't say that it was aid provided by the US that was politically motivated, they said that the US and allies are trying to piggy-back on the work of aid organizations to "win hearts and minds."

Since you don't seem to have read it the first time, I'll quote it again:

Since MSF is an independent organization, why do you think the coalition would be making such announcements?

Look, as somebody who has worked with NGO's (non-govermental organizations) while serving in a military role I can see why MSF may have gotten a little bothered.

Our own Civil Affairs people have the same issue.

We try to co-opt the NGO's to help the peple we want them to help, they try to co-opt us for security.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

I have a lot of respect for most of the people involved with NGO's. Just like I have respect for those people on the battlefield who don't carry weapons. (Medics and Clergy) Just as long as they realize that sometimes a man with a gun can be the solution or can allow them to be the solution we get along fine.

Not that anyone could ever confuse the borderline between military action and humanitarian aid.