There is currently an appalling logical disconnect in the policies of the East African state of Ethiopia and in U.S. policy toward it. As matters stand now, starvation is becoming more widespread in Ethiopia and it is spending its sparse resources on a military occupation of neighboring Somalia.

International relief agencies are reporting with increasing urgency growth in both the volume and the geographic spread of starvation in Ethiopia. They also report their own increasing difficulty in meeting the needs of the thousands of people at risk. This is, of course, not a new phenomenon in Ethiopia.

The situation, based as it almost always is in that part of the world on drought, which kills the vegetation, then the animals, and then the people, is reportedly made worse this time by the fact that the cost of the food which the world provides as aid has roughly doubled. Put simply, the dollar amount of humanitarian aid being provided has remained constant, but the amount of food delivered for that amount is being cut in half. The need for it, of course, is not dropping.

Ethiopia invaded neighboring Somalia, not for the first time either, in December 2006. The United States provided Ethiopian forces intelligence and air support in its attacks inside Somalia, including air strikes on Somali targets. The ostensible reason for the invasion was that the government in power in Somalia at that point was Islamist in its orientation and, according to Washington, risked becoming a host for Islamic extremist elements in that part of Africa.

Ethiopian occupation forces remain in Somalia to date, 19 months later. The United States continues to provide substantial military aid to Ethiopia's 200,000-man armed forces. The United States also continues to provide humanitarian food aid to Ethiopia. It seems rather obvious that Ethiopia should stop spending money maintaining an occupation force in Somalia as the needs of its people, simply to avoid starvation, grow.

It also seems perfectly obvious that the United States should stop providing Ethiopia military assistance to continue its occupation of Somalia and should devote whatever aid it can make available to that country to helping meet the desperate needs of its population, facing drought, starvation and a major shortfall in food aid.

Or should Ethiopians starve in greater numbers to meet America's perceived security needs in the Horn of Africa? That is exactly what current U.S. policy there amounts to, and the choice that President Bush now needs to make.