I've been doing "deep dives" lately, ostensibly to fill in for a colleague on R&R, but in fact to look in depth at what we're up to at various district centers. Today was Now Zad, site of portentous TV headlines and pre-COIN bombardment of that town by ISAF. I had the good fortune of heading out in an Osprey, my favorite helicopter - has those rotors that point up for liftoff then tilt forward and it flies like an airplane - fast - until it's ready to land again, when it becomes a helicopter. No leaky hydraulics, exciting, fast. 
What used to be the second largest town in Helmand before the Soviets burned all the orchards and destroyed the kerez system - the underground tunnels that channel groundwater so farmers can irrigate - is now an arid clutter of mud ruins and scattered families, another sunblasted landscape with most of the population evacuated. We're doing some repairs to the kerezes and supporting agriculture as circumstances permit, but this is a community that lacks fundamental security (lots of Taliban, lots of IEDs), and its, shall we say "governance" is too ethically fraught to invest too much money that way. The closing act for the visiting group was a shura of would-be "elders" airing their frustrations. How do you reverse a concerted scorched earth policy? Does it really take this long?
Tonight(Sept 2)'s edition of PBS NewsHour had a strange piece on whether the average Helmander knows anything about 9-11. Characterizations:
ReplyDelete'this is the stone age here." The Marines interviewed came off fine, indeed. But it does add another dimension to "pawnship." You can probably catch it on the PBS website.
And here's the link: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec11/afghans9_11_09-02.html
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