Center for a New American Security

Mutually inquisitive, the soldier-bovine pair pictured above appears to be getting better acquainted. Writ large, the interaction represents the increasing focus on agriculture (and broader economic stability and development) as critical to U.S. military strategies in Iraq and Afghanistan. With a reinvigorated appreciation for the relationships among agricultural, economic, and political stability, American troops have been assisting local farmers with veterinary medicine and agricultural marketing. Unseasonable drought conditions in Iraq and pressures to continue growing poppies in Afghanistan, however, ensure that stabilizing those countries’ legitimate agriculture industries will be anything but easy.

Photo: A cow nuzzles up to Staff Sgt. Chad Ryan in East Anbar province, northwest of Baghdad, Iraq. Courtesy of Staff Sgt. J.B. Jaso, III and the U.S. Department of Defense.