Guard unit's Afghan mission to involve restoring the agriculture economy

[bigtree]

March 2, 2009


National Guard Ag Development Team members practice a mock ‘jirga’ with actors portraying Afghan elders on post.

FORT RILEY — For one Kansas National Guard unit, the primary mission when they head to Afghanistan will not be fighting insurgents with weapons. They will be forging connections between Afghans and the U.S. Army by helping restore the country's agricultural system that has been ravaged by decades of war.

Other teams with the same mission from Missouri and Nebraska have gone to Afghanistan, and another two teams from Kansas will follow in the next few years . . .

Najibullah Sahak, former chief cultural advisor to Afghanistan and one of the Afghan nationals Fort Riley has contracted to help train the units, said humanitarian missions like these are just as important as fighting the Taliban.

''They need to build a rapport with their counterparts,'' Sahak said. ''That's the way to gain the hearts and minds of the people. These people are going to change Afghanistan.''

The unit's training includes learning to conduct meetings with Afghan officials, including tribal leaders. At Camp Funston Friday, the team completed its cultural awareness training after spending the week learning basic aspects of Afghan culture and language. That includes role playing with Afghans who simulated a tribal meeting, or jirga, and speaking through a translator to develop relationships and carry out the mission. Fort Riley's 1st Infantry Division has been training similar transition teams for several years that go to Afghanistan and Iraq to develop police and army units.

The unit also will take with them farm implements and machine tools, and several tons of winter wheat; officials hope it will grow in the area, which gets little rain but can be irrigated from nearby rivers . . .


article: http://www.themercury.com/News/article.aspx?articleId=326409a21bec4d13bf9ec175ea783077

[maxsolomon]

1. we figure this out 7 years on?

smart cookies over at the pentagon.

[bigtree]

2. better late than never

. . . better yet, we give State the resources to do these jobs.

[SpartanDem]

3. Long overdue

this is part a of the mission the Bush Administration severely neglected by trying to fight this war on the cheap. This thread definitely needs a bump becuase too often discussions on Afghanistan focus on military mission alone.