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- THE WEEK, Page 26WORLDInto the Breach
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- The U.S. offers its forces to defend Somali relief supplies
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- The discouragingly repetitious reports of armed Somali
- warlords siphoning as much as 80% of the humanitarian relief
- supplies finally got to George Bush. The outgoing U.S. President
- proposed to U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali that
- American military forces be dispatched to ensure that the food
- and medicine reach the starving population. Two thousand U.S.
- Marines aboard amphibious ships in the Indian Ocean are
- available for the job, and Pentagon sources say an additional
- 15,000 or more would be ready, provided that the U.N. Security
- Council approves the initiative this week. Somali strongman
- General Mohammed Farrah Aidid, who has hamstrung the oversight
- of an existing 500-man Pakistani unit, says somewhat ambiguously
- that he welcomes the U.S. initiative. But even if he doesn't,
- U.S. officials said, the decision should be made regardless of
- Aidid's views. The critical factor is concern for the 2 million
- Somalis who risk starvation in the coming months.
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