Long-term US help pledged: More helicopters on way: Abizaid
By Anwar Mansuri
ISLAMABAD, Oct 23: Commander-in-Chief of the US Central Command General John Abizaid on Monday assured Pakistan his country’s long-term help in recovering from the devastation caused by the Oct 8 earthquake.
“We were here as quickly as we could be, and we will stay as long as we need to in order to help,” he told a press conference at Chaklala air base after an aerial view of the vast scale of devastation spread over 25,000 square kilometres.
Gen Abizaid was asked whether the US would stand by Pakistan if the reconstruction work took five or 10 years.
“But the task ahead for all of us is an immense task and there is a lot of work to do,” the Centcom chief said, stressing that the international community too “needs to continue to help Pakistan”.
When reminded that both President Gen Pervez Musharraf and the United Nations had described the international response as inadequate, Gen Abizaid said: “I think the most important thing we can do is by our own positive example to show the rest of the world there is a lot more work that needs to be done. There are a lot of people who need a lot of help.”
Federal Relief Commissioner Major General Farooq Ahmed Khan, who flanked the US general at the press conference, listed heavy-lift helicopters, waterproof tents, blankets and medical supplies as the most urgent needs of the quake-stricken people.
Gen Abizaid announced that 25 more Chinooks would soon join the US helicopter fleet already engaged in relief operations. Eleven of the big helicopters had arrived in Afghanistan and would reach Pakistan in a day or two.
“It is not something that can just be forgotten,” he said about the scale of devastation caused by the earthquake which he called “quite significant”.
“It cannot be the five second-sound byte that we are all so used to. It has to be a long-term effort to help a lot of people in need and you will certainly see us leading the way to the extent we can,” said Gen Abizaid whose command oversees the US military interests in the Middle East and near east region.
Gen Abizaid stressed that the help of the US to Pakistan in its hour of need was “really the face of the United States of America that everybody should pay attention to”.
Gen Abizaid made the remark in response to a question whether he feared that the recent images of the US soldiers burning Taliban bodies in Afghanistan might eclipse the good image that the United States had gained by coming to the help of Pakistan’s earthquake victims.
“Mistakes always happen on every battlefield. But this (help to ally Pakistan) is no mistake. We are here to help and we are here to help not because of the war (on terror) but because people need help,” he said.
He praised the Pakistani armed forces for the way they were meeting the challenge posed by the devastating earthquake.
“I think the work that they have done is quite professional,” he said.
