World Food Program

[bcholmes]

The U.N. World Food Program sharply reduced its deliveries this week after failing to obtain enough U.N. peacekeepers or U.S. soldiers to keep anxious crowds in order. After staging as many as 20 deliveries in a day last weekend, the agency has cut that number to a maximum of five.

The limit was set by the U.N. peacekeeping command, which concluded that its weary and overstretched troops could handle no more than that, according to WFP spokesman David Orr. With an estimated 2 million people in serious need after the Jan. 12 earthquake, U.N. officials say they have been pressing U.S. military leaders to assign more soldiers to food missions.

— Washington Post

Apparently Préval, in responding to a question about whether he's concerned with the presence of all these foreign troops, replied that the question was ideological: "We are talking about people suffering and you are talking about ideology," he said.

I think the soldiers haven't done much, if any, good in this entire process.