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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Update: Khost Provincial Reconstruction Team |
| 2004-03-26 |
| EFL The U.S. military inaugurated a project on Thursday that is supposed to speed reconstruction and win over skeptical Afghans in a former al-Qaida stronghold that is still on the front line of America’s war on terrorism. Military and Afghan officials cut a ribbon across the entrance to the office of the Khost provincial reconstruction team, the 12th of its kind and a symbol of America’s changing strategy in the face of a stubborn Taliban-led insurgency. "Combat has been necessary in the past to defeat the terrorist threat, which is our common enemy," Maj. Gen. Lloyd Austin, the U.S. second-in-command in Afghanistan, told dozens of Afghan elders and officials at the ceremony. "But our concern now is the future. Our emphasis must remain on setting the conditions for reconstruction and development," Austin said. Commanders claim that Taliban and al-Qaida holdouts are now so weakened that they can be finished off by bringing long-delayed relief and reconstruction aid to their former strongholds in the south and east. Yet attacks on aid workers and military targets continue, and the number of mainly U.S. soldiers here has risen some 2,000 -- to 13,500 in all -- in recent months as the military seeks to capture al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar. The reconstruction team in Khost, and others like it, is key to victory, commanders said. A squat concrete building, its walls still wet and its windows yet to be glazed, will house a small group of American soldiers with orders to catalyze reconstruction and aid work. Austin said the team would build schools, wells and clinics to bolster local services. Streets in Khost city are also to be repaved. All the projects are intended to pour money into the local economy. Top U.S. commanders at Wednesday’s ceremony were not available to speak to reporters covering the event, embellished with national anthems and flags and a bout of traditional Afghan music and dance. Bearded American soldiers in civilian clothes moved in and out of the heavily guarded base in dust-caked Humvees and pickup trucks, betraying how the war continues. Does that rankle and AP guy or what? Why won’t they talk to me? Can’t they see that I’m the Press? Instead, it was left to a reservist physician at a small clinic in the barren, rock-strewn base to defend the reconstruction effort in what is still a combat zone. "There is a ’hearts-and-minds’ aspect and you can’t overestimate that," said Capt. Steve Travis, a native of Guthrie, Okla. But we’re really making a difference," Travis said, pointing to more than 9,000 mostly female patients treated since November. "It’s not eyewash." At the ceremony, Khost Gov. Hakim Taniwal pleaded for international aid groups and the United Nations to return to his province. Fat chance with the Paki fight going on. But officials acknowledge that aid workers spooked by the deadly shootings of mine clearers and well-diggers still don’t believe the border areas are safe. I wonder if giving the press the ice cold shoulder is payback for the slanted coverage. |
| Posted by:Super Hose |
| #2 I think the good doctor did an excellent job. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-03-26 1:41:26 PM |
| #1 I wonder if giving the press the ice cold shoulder is payback for the slanted coverage. Partly. It also makes it harder for the press to backhand stuff, when the speaker is, say, a reservist physician rather than somebody from the brass. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2004-03-26 1:15:44 PM |