NATO says no to quake airlift, may send troops

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - NATO said on Friday it would send up to 1,000 troops to help hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors who have been waiting for two weeks for help in the rugged mountains of northern Pakistan.

But it rebuffed a U.N. call for a massive airlift to rescue stranded survivors on the scale of the 1948-49 Berlin airlift to the beleaguered people of Soviet-blockaded West Berlin.

"There is no question of the alliance doing that. That was Berlin after World War Two and this is Pakistan now â?? there is absolutely no comparison," said one NATO source.

The top U.N. aid official, incensed by what he saw as a woefully inadequate response to the most difficult relief operation the world has seen, had called on the military alliance to launch a huge airlift to get survivors to safety.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1237146

It's nice to see the worlds good friend NATO take such an interest in peoples well beings. I guess there were no "kick-backs" available. :rolleyes:

Guess it's time the the "Military Industrial Complex" to pick up the pieces AGAIN!!!