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USAID does not have the agricultural specialists needed for the mission in Afghanistan, but the National Guard sure does. They have been especially successful in Ghazni. Thanks to the reader who sent this along.
I'd urge some caution about reading too much from this report. Don't get me wrong -- I'm a huge huge huge fan of ADTs, and think we need more like them -- but I really don't think this is an accurate portrayal of how things have progressed in Ghazni. As recently as April, people in Ghazni were complaining that they had no help, no contact from the government, and the Poles were too rough and not very developmenty.
That doesn't mean there's been no good there, but especially considering how the situation in Ghazni has progressed the last six months, I don't think we can call our efforts there a success.
Indiana National Guard equivalent in Khost: http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/cultivating-afghanistan/
Indiana ADT in Khost: http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/cultivating-afghanistan/
Maybe they can make good use of 500.000 pounds of fertilizer?
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/11/massive-astan-haul-500000-pounds...
"The primary weapon in the Taliban’s deadly, dumbed-down arsenal of explosives is the simple fertilizer bomb. Each one typically weighs 50 or 60 pounds. Each one is powerful enough to blow holes in armored vehicles, and kill soldiers instantly.
So it is an extremely big deal that NATO and Afghan troops announced today that they found 500,000 pounds of the stuff — along with 5,000 improvised bomb components — in a Kandahar compound."
Photos of Narcotectures (via BB)
The MO ARNG folks in the video are from the first ADT and were deployed to Nangarhar in winter of '07, not Ghazni. Based on their experiences and successes, the ARNG was able to recruit more states to support this mission. When I left Afghanistan in SEP08, the ADT program had been expanded with ARNG units deployed or set to deploy to Ghazni, Paktya, Kapisa/Parwan, Khowst and Laghman. The Ghazni ADT deployed much later (summer '08) and has had less time to develop relationships. Additionally, they are working in a difficult AO with the added complication of integrating with Polish forces.
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