OPINION:
Angelina Jolie is right in urging the United States to aid Pakistan (“Angelina Jolie urges aid for flood-hit Pakistan,” Web, Culture, Tuesday). While the United States already has pledged some aid to help the victims of these horrific floods, much more needs to be done to prevent a human catastrophe of potentially historic proportions.
Although President Obama is preoccupied with many issues, he needs to address this issue forthrightly and substantially increase American aid to the beleaguered flood victims in Pakistan. Other countries need to step up to the plate as well and aid these people - not in a month, but now.
Mr. Obama should not let the Pakistani flood victims suffer the same fate as the hapless children of Biafra, the breakaway state of Nigeria, who starved while the world watched. He should use U.S. diplomatic clout to make certain that other countries, especially wealthy Muslim countries, make aid to the Pakistani flood victims a priority as well.
RICHARD H. ESCOBALES JR.
Buffalo, N.Y.
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