Bring tractors, not tanks: Afghan governor

[bigtree]

30th January 2009, 8:13am


OTTAWA — The Afghan-Canadian governor of Kandahar is asking Canada for tractors, not tanks, for his troubled province.

Tooryalai Wesa says the way to improve security and fight insurgency in Kandahar is with job creation, advanced agricultural technology, and teachers who can show Afghans how to use it.

During a stop in Ottawa where he met with federal cabinet ministers, Wesa said “we should learn from history.”

He says Afghanistan would not be in its current situation if Russia invaded the country in 1979 with 50,000 tractors instead of a similar number of tanks.

Wesa says he sees only possibility where most of the rest of the world sees violence and despair . . .

read more: http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/world/2009/01/30/8204216.html


Tooryalai Wesa, right, is shown in a 2004 handout photo during a meeting in Afghanistan with grape growers. (University of British Columbia)

[L0oniX]

1. Yes ...we need more opium for our cars n/t

[bigtree]

3. US Soldiers Lead Agricultural Development in Afghanistan

23 January 2009


An Afghan boy waits for customer as he sells vegetables in Kabul, Afghanistan, 24 Nov 2008

The U.S. Department of Defense is sending agricultural teams to Afghanistan to supplement the war effort nad help Afghans rebuild their country's largest and most important economic sector.

Pentagon officials said the Agricultural Development Teams are made up of citizen reserve soldiers from the U.S. Army National Guard.

Army Secretary Pete Geren said the teams have been working successfully to rebuild farming communities in Afghanistan and that more are expected to be deployed this year.

Geren said soldiers from eight U.S. states are expected to be a part of the agriculture program.

"These are guardsmen from all across the country, who have stepped up, volunteered to serve their country, and serve it in a very traditional way, but in an unconventional way when you consider what we normally expect in modern warfare," he said.

Through the Agricultural Development Teams, Afghans receive advice and training in soil sciences, irrigation, horticulture, and raising livestock.

Geren said the teams also focus on teaching storage and marketing skills so farm products can be sold domestically and exported. He said these skills are crucial to rebuilding the Afghan economy because more than 70 percent of people in Afghanistan farm for a living. Agriculture accounts for more than half of the country's gross domestic product.

"This fits very well into the overall concept of trying to build a stable Afghanistan that can stand on its own and become economically self-sufficient and certainly self-sufficient in feeding itself," he explained.

read: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-01-23-voa52.cfm

[pinto]

2. He's got a great point.

(aside) Fareed Zakari (CNN) moderated a good discussion about Afghan issues recently. I think the piece is still at the CNN website.

[Occam Bandage]

4. One without the other won't work in Kandahar. nt

[bigtree]

5. The man is speaking in the present tense

. . . and he is in a position to know what Kandahar needs right now.

[blm]

6. This goes with what Kerry's saying - the 'surge' in Afghanistan needs to be help with INFRASTRUCTURE

and farming and utilities and schools. The beefed up troop presence should only be in securing these areas so they CAN be rebuilt and become functional - - and it has to be done on LOCAL LEVEL with LOCAL cooperation.

[Winterblues]

8. And LOCAL Labor, not 150,000 foreign Contractors.

Another reason the Iraqis hate America. We presume they are unable to rebuild their own country. They may need some financial assistance and some limited engineering expertise, but not an invasion of foreign laborers. Iraq has over 60% unemployment rate.. Afghanistan is even worse..

[bigtree]

11. It's so good to see him chairing his committee

He's almost as active as the new president.

[Waiting For Everyman]

7. He's so right.

Build basic infrastructure and help defend it as necessary until the locals can, and they won't want to have it destroyed by some fanatics with an axe to grind.

Besides, it's the right thing to do as long as they are occupied anyway. Do them as much good as possible, for pete's sakes. That's what "foreign policy" ought to be in the first place.

(Only, no "seedless agriculture" or any of that corporate nonsense.)

[Arctic Dave]

9. Should have went in with both to begin with.

The level of ignorance of this region during the * years staggers the imagination.

[Aristus]

10. Building, not destroying, contributes to peace; what a novel concept.

B-)

[Greyhound]

12. This is exactly what I've been saying for years. Afghanistan cannot be conquered

militarily, the greatest military powers throughout history have learned this lesson the hard way.

OTOH, we can win over the Afghanis by helping them to improve their country and lives. This is how OBL won them in the first place and created the infamous "breeding ground for terrorists".

They do not live they way they do because that is how they want to live. They live that way because it is the only way to live. Send in troops to guard an army of construction equipment and employ an army of Afghanis to use them to build roads and schools, hospitals, sanitation, water, and power facilities.

Do that and we will quickly learn who our real friends are and none of the scum we are currently supporting are among them.

Afghanistan could be what Iraq should have been and for far less blood and money than spending the next decade blowing up rubble will cost.