This commentary was written at the beginning of America’s war on terrorism, shortly after we had begun attacking the Taliban forces in Afghanistan. The UN was also airlifting tons of food aid. The incongruity of dropping food and medical supplies to the natives while bombing the country struck me as odd.

It once again put American agriculture on the front page.

FOOD AID TO AFGHANISTAN

Allow me to quote Yar Mohamed, Afghani soldier: “We will never surrender bin Laden. . . . We will do everything for the safety and security of our guest.”

Reminded of the thousands of tons of grain being shipped into his starving country by the UN, most of which is being donated by the American government, he dismissed the food aid by saying, “It is the politics of America.”

Ain’t it ever? The beefed-up, months-early farm bill steam-rolled through the House over President Bush’s objection. Politicians know, our allies know, even our enemies know . . . that our agricultural bounty, the sweat and soil, the seed and toil, the abundant dirt cheap life-sustaining daily bread is the cornerstone of politics in America.

One strategy to win a war is to starve the enemy. So why are we willing to pour food aid into the cauldron of Taliban territory in the midst of the fighting? Self-defeating, some would say. I suspect it is based on the conviction that Yar, in his fanatic loyalty, would be willing to starve himself for the cause, but Mrs. Yar may not be quite so willing to starve her children to prove a point.

Once again America charges into the breech of conflict with butter and breadsticks.

Politicians, even more than generals, know that if your weapons are edible, one must have a ready supply of ammunition. Thus, the current emphasis on the new farm bill.

President Bush is concerned that it will stimulate overproduction. Congress knows it will. Overproduction is the basis of the cheap-food policy encouraged by Congress since God invented supply and demand.

This time, however, no one will be griping about “subsidized farming.” We expect to have to feed hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees during our war on terrorism. And no one doubts that American farmers will rise to the occasion.

There is no promise to producers that they will be paid more than the subsistence prices they are paid now. But for the time being that doesn’t matter. As Yar says, “Food aid is the politics of America.”

So the flags flying across the fruited plain from our barns and combines, our tractors and saddlehorns will be a sign to Mrs. Yar that if the farmers have anything to do about it, her children will not starve to death in her arms while our brother soldiers go about excising the cancers of the civilized world.