{"id":227926,"date":"2010-01-25T18:45:57","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T23:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2010889377_italiancriticismofreliefeffort.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-01-25T18:45:57","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T23:45:57","slug":"italian-criticism-of-relief-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/227926","title":{"rendered":"Italian criticism of relief effort"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Official is out of touch with reality<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Editor, The Times:<\/p>\n<p>Criticism of U.S. military relief-operations in Haiti by Italy\u2019s senior civil-protection official is political hot air [\u201cDisaster expert: U.S. Haiti relief \u2018pathetic,\u2019\u201d page one, Jan. 25].<\/p>\n<p>Guido Bertolaso whines that American military officers are running a \u201ccivilian\u201d relief effort. I\u2019d like to ask Bertolaso where else he\u2019d find the personnel, equipment, organizational discipline and individual initiative to do what\u2019s been accomplished so far.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the first medical responders to hit the beach were Coast Guard medics from the cutters Tahoma and Mohawk. It was Air Force personnel who reopened the Port-au-Prince airport \u2014 providing not only continuous air-traffic control, but maximizing use of a pitifully small aircraft parking-area. The main port would still be closed were it not for Navy Seabees, Navy divers and the Coast Guard cutter Oak \u2014 the only buoy tender in Haiti.<\/p>\n<p>Who\u2019s been bringing bulk supplies directly ashore away from Port-au-Prince? It\u2019s the sailors on the landing craft from the Navy assault ship Bataan. Where\u2019s the best-equipped hospital \u2014 one that\u2019s not going to crumble in the next aftershock? It\u2019s the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort. Who else has been distributing food and water? Troops from the Army\u2019s 82nd Airborne Division.<\/p>\n<p>Bertolaso\u2019s charge that the military doesn\u2019t \u201chave a close rapport with the international organizations and aid groups\u201d is false. Our military leaders have been coordinating closely with relief groups and U.N. officials.<\/p>\n<p>Haiti relief is an overwhelming job, but the situation there would be even worse without the initial and continuing work of the U.S. military. It\u2019s yet another reason I\u2019m proud to have worn the uniform.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian official describes our military effort as \u201ca truly powerful show of force, but \u2026 completely out of touch with reality.\u201d Rubbish. It\u2019s a truly powerful show of compassion and Signor Bertolaso is the one who is out of touch.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014 Phil Johnson, retired Coast Guard lieutenant commander, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Official is out of touch with reality Editor, The Times: Criticism of U.S. military relief-operations in Haiti by Italy\u2019s senior civil-protection official is political hot air [\u201cDisaster expert: U.S. Haiti relief \u2018pathetic,\u2019\u201d page one, Jan. 25]. Guido Bertolaso whines that American military officers are running a \u201ccivilian\u201d relief effort. I\u2019d like to ask Bertolaso where [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}