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To: Neeka who wrote (93750)	1/5/2005 3:38:39 AM
From: KLP	Respond to of 793725

U.S. Relief Effort in Asia Not Affecting Iraq Forces washingtonpost.com washingtonpost.com By Bradley Graham Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, January 5, 2005; Page A11 The growing U.S. military relief effort for tsunami victims in South Asia is not being limited by U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, nor is it draining forces from those conflicts, according to the top U.S. commander in the Asia-Pacific region. Adm. Thomas B. Fargo said at a Pentagon news conference yesterday that the substantial numbers of ships, planes and troops enlisted to provide humanitarian assistance have come from forces previously committed to his command. "Fundamentally we had these assets in the Pacific," he said. "So we haven't had to detriment those capabilities in Afghanistan and Iraq." The relief effort has rapidly become one of the most complex ever mounted by U.S. forces. It has drawn an aircraft carrier battle group and a helicopter carrier expeditionary fleet from the Pacific into the Indian Ocean, along with scores of cargo planes. In all, more than 20 ships and 75 aircraft are involved, engaging more than 13,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, according to figures yesterday from Fargo's Pacific Command. Before shifting these forces from the Pacific, where their main mission normally is to deter potential aggression by North Korea and China, Fargo said he conferred with Army Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, the senior U.S. commander in South Korea. "We talked about Korea in some depth, and I was very comfortable with the movement of our forces," Fargo said. Although already large by historical standards -- and appearing to make a substantial impact in speeding emergency supplies -- the U.S. military effort remains dwarfed by the enormous scale of the disaster area. So far, for instance, the United States has provided only 46 helicopters to help ferry food and water to regions where planes cannot land and vehicles cannot reach because roads and bridges were swept away. Fargo reported plans to expand the relief force, including possibly doubling the number of helicopters to about 90, although he noted that countries such as Singapore and Japan also are contributing helicopters -- an effort that may reduce some need for more U.S. aircraft. He said consideration is being given as well to starting airdrops of food and water to difficult-to-reach areas. But he noted that such operations require "very close coordination" with people on the ground. "That means we have to have people enter these regions before we can conduct that," he said. In a separate news conference, William Winkenwerder Jr., the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, cited preparations to send as many as eight portable hospitals, as well as mortuary affairs groups to help deal with human remains. He said the Pentagon is coordinating with other government agencies and with the United Nations and the World Health Organization on what additional medical assistance is needed. Among additional military assets that U.S. officials have indicated may be sent is the hospital ship USNS Mercy. Fargo said the ship has been on sea trials in the past week "to make sure that she's ready to go," but not in its traditional capacity to treat victims. Instead, he said, the idea would be to let nongovernmental organizations use the ship as a base of operations. "This may be an opportunity to use Mercy in a very creative way," he said. Another senior military officer said Pentagon officials are reviewing the legal and political issues that could be raised by such an unconventional mission. Fargo said he had no estimate of how much the military portion of the U.S. disaster relief effort is costing, but he noted that the price of operating a carrier strike group such as the one headed by the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, generally runs about $2.5 million a day. Asked whether his command had received any warning of the impending disaster before the tsunami struck Dec. 26, Fargo said that in contrast to the Pacific Ocean region, the Indian Ocean has no tsunami warning system. "What obviously is going to have to be addressed in the future is whether we need . . . a similar system in the Indian Ocean," he said.