Hunger

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This is a good news-bad news essay.

The good news is that supplies for rebuilding Iraq are moving freely and with a convoy-attack rate of 1.5%. So the good news is you could now happily pin on your flag lapel (Attacks on U.S. Convoys Decline.)

". . . logistics convoys rely on drivers and vehicles supplied by Iraqi companies under contract with the corps. British and U.S. companies provide convoy security, also under contract with the corps."

On the suspicious side, is it remotely possible that these security companies are paying tribute or kick backs to keep from being attacked?

"Pease says the successful use of private security contractors to protect the logistics convoys frees more U.S. troops for combat and peacekeeping."

If things are so swell, why do U.S. troops have to perform either function? Let the Iraqi forces perform these functions. It is their country after all is said and done.

Now for the bad news. The same USA Today edition features an article on the sad state of food banks across the U.S. -- "Gleaning Programs Multiply as Food Donations Decline."

"The Society of St. Andrew reports overall food donations have declined from 46 million pounds in 2001 to just over 20 million pounds in 2007," their supply reduced by half over the course of the last six years. The picture accompanying the article shows a banner "Please Donate Food" at a San Francisco food bank.

Poor people need food in the good old USA, and donations to food banks are down for a number of reasons. So in America the poor are suffering increasing "food insufficiency"( to use the government's euphemism for hunger), but back to the Good News: we are still rebuilding Baghdad.

That doesn't even thaw my cold Ranger heart.