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Chapter 7 – Section 3

Making Foreign Policy

MALE SPEAKER: For a man who has seen so much of what the world has to offer Colin Powell could find few words to describe what he saw today.

MALE SPEAKER: I have been in war, and I have been through a number of hurricanes, tornadoes and other relief operations, but I have never seen anything like this.

MALE SPEAKER: Indonesia is a graveyard for some 95,000 people. Seeing it with his own eyes, said Mr. Powell, made him realize just how much it will take to complete the recovery. U.S. helicopters continue to do the bulk of the rescue work, but they are ferrying survivors in at such a rate, patients are now overflowing onto the sidewalks of Banda Aceh’s two working hospitals.

MALE SPEAKER: American Military personnel ships and aircraft stepped up deliveries today of supplies vital to the international relief effort. To many people accustomed to seeing the military in combat in Iraq, this humanitarian role is strangely different.

MALE SPEAKER: It is just heartbreaking. And yet at the same time, that heartbreaking situation I think is what’s driving us.

MALE SPEAKER: Three Star Marine Corp general Robert “Rusty” Blackman commands all of the American forces providing relief to the millions left hurt, hungry, and homeless by the tsunami. Some 13,000 U.S. military more than twenty U.S. ships and many dozens of planes and helicopters make up the operation.

MALE SPEAKER: Is it too strong to say that you are doing it on the fly?

MALE SPEAKER: No sir. This is one of the great capabilities that the US military brings. We are having to be very flexible and adaptive.

MALE SPEAKER: Adapting is the way things work at this tiny air field near the regional capital of Banda Aceh in Northern Sumatra. It has become the central hub for moving critical supplies to the battered millions who live in this remote corner of Indonesia. Some food has already been delivered and an aid worker remembers the initial desperation of starving villagers. He says the people of Carat Yen still have urgent needs. And it’s been U.S. military choppers riding to the rescue. Michael Bock is a civilian with USAID.

FEMALE SPEAKER: These guys are angels. We are so glad that they came. When they dropped down two days ago with the helicopters it was the best sound I ever heard.

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