Katrina aid sent elsewhere

As an adendum to this story about how tonnes of British aid for victims of hurricane Katrina were to be burnt because they were, well, British, comes this:

U.S. rejects Katrina meals, offers them to others

The United States on Friday offered needy countries more than 330,000 packaged meals donated by Britain to feed Hurricane Katrina victims but rejected due to a U.S. ban on British beef.

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the "Meals Ready to Eat," or MREs, had been held in a warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, for more than a month after U.S. Agriculture Department officials said they could not be distributed in the United States because they contained British beef products.

"We are certainly, for our part, looking to dispose of these MREs that were offered in the spirit of friendship and charity. We are looking to dispose of them in the same way," Ereli told a State Department briefing.

So, not good enough for starving Americans, good enough to palm off on starving non-Americans. Gotcha.

What's even funnier about this is that the situation in Iraq means that soldiers stationed there eat whatever is provided by the closest supply network. So US forces in areas supplied by UK forces eat these very same Compo rations.

Sorry, did I say "funny" when I meant "insane"?