‘Feeding the Hungry’
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Robert McCloskey’s article, “Tougher Road for Famine Fighters” (Op-Ed Page, Nov. 10) illustrated that there has been real progress in ending hunger. It also pointed to a necessary next step. Governments and volunteers have worked assiduously to prevent needless deaths in the latest Ethiopian drought. A new climate has emerged in which it is simply unacceptable to sacrifice human lives for political considerations.
However, all of this effort may yield no benefit if incidents such as the recent Eritrean People’s Liberation Front attack on a food convoy are allowed to reoccur. Surely, if the combatants knew that the world was watching, they could be convinced to let the United Nations monitor relief shipments and insure their safety.
Even the EPLF and the Ethiopian government would respond to a new global imperative: Under no circumstances is food to be used as a weapon!
PEGGY CRAIK SMITH
Thousand Oaks
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