Why are they printed in English? How many people in Afghanistan can read English? Or do they have another language on the reverse?
Also–the food is dehydrated, correct? Where are they going to get the water to reconstitute the rations? Isn’t it, um, dry in Afghanistan? And I don’t think running water is an option for most of the people.
I heard a reporter who quoted an Afghan woman saying “How am I supposed to cook this food?” I think they should go back to the old “C” rations that had canned goods and energy bars. Hell, if we also sent them the small packs of cigarettes, we might make some friends.
The packages being propped right now are part of the back-stock. When it’s gone, new packages will be produced with more appropriate printing. No one ever expected we’d be involved in Afganistan when these were first made-up.
From the Defense Supply Center:
You can get some nourishment out of that, even if you don’t have any water. It doesn’t need any.
The real problem is getting the drops in the right place. It doesn’t matter how good (or bad) the food is if there’s no one around to eat it.
Forgot the link:
Of course, the language isn’t too relevant, anyway, since less than half of Afghanis can read, in any language.
Literacy (age 15 and over can read and write):
total population: 31.5%
male: 47.2%
female: 15% (1999 est.)
Not all of the packages are English only. Admittedly it’s a moot point, as the bilingual ones are English/Spanish which doesn’t really help much either. On the gripping hand, I’d assume most starving people know they should eat food without needing written instructions to that effect.
Or if what you wind up doing is supplying a black market. Somebody who’s actually going to eat the stuff has to get to it before some local entrepreneur makes a concerted effort to grab as much of it as he can.
Or dropping it into a minefield. 
When I worked out in San Bernardino I would take the entree packet from an MRE and put it on my dashboard. At lunchtime I’d open it and it would be steaming. Of course, that might prove difficult if you only have a donkey; but I would assume there is some glass laying around that could be used to make a “solar heater”.
One thing I’m curious about is why would anyone trust the food? If I were in a war zone and I suddenly found food lying around, I’d wonder if it was poisoned. I might think, “The U.S. would not poison food.” On the other hand, an evil government could make food that looks like it comes from the U.S. but actually is counterfeit and laced with poison. That would A) make the people not eat the real U.S. food, and B) possibly make the people think the U.S. is targeting them in a particularly dishonourable way, turning them against the U.S.
Why should the Afghanis trust American food?
Honey, when you’re starving you’ll eat anything. And there really are people starving to actual death in Afghanistan. Sooner or later someone will be hungry enough to open the wrapper, and if he/she lives the neighbors will dig in, too.
About those minefields -
I think it’s a little patronizing to assume the Afghanis will rush blindly into fields. The country has been a minefield for 22 years. The really stupid and reckless are dead or footless by now. The ones that are left are the survivors, most of whom have some clue as to how dangerous the countryside is.
Another tip-off - if an air drop of food arrives with several KA-BOOMS! in the field it might indicate landmines in the vicinity.
Yes, we should use some caution in where we drop things, but we’re caught between caution and the coming winter and how long people can go without food. This is why war is hell - people die unnecessary deaths, frequently in horrible circumstances.
Apart from everything stated above, there is also the curious fact that, as far as I am aware, there is no hunger or starvation yet – there will be unless the World Food Programme gets supplies in soon but not at the moment. There is food in Afghanistan - although things may have changed since the Taliban took control of a number of Relief depots yesterday but that was after the drops began.
Not one westerner (I am aware of) on the ground (with the Northern Alliance, staff in Afghanistan and in Pakistan) – all primarily in the Relief business – sees these drops as any thing other than pure eye candy.
Maybe someone’s seen other reports ?