When members of the 2nd Bn, 503rd Infantry (Airborne) working to help the locals take control of the security environment in Kunnar Province in Afghanistan noted that the local police, national police, and national army didn’t really like...
I just read an article about our troops helping about 60 Afghan boys form Afghan Boy Scout Troop #1. That brought back thoughts of my days in scouting. I was a cub scout, boy scout, and explorer scout. As an aside, for a few years in the 1950s...
I thought this was cool. Our troops are teaching Afgan women how to manage beehives and build a business. Helping women support themselves is very important for the future as women and their children are often widowed and options for work in their...
When Afgam Mujeeb Saify became an interpreter for the US 3 years ago, he spoke Urdu, Pashtu, Dari, Panjabi and English. Then, he used his spare time to take classes in Arabic.br /br /In his “spare time” he started hosting a weekly radio...
Paving the way for success in the Afghan New Year, the people of Paktika Province, heard the voice of their local government on radio, thanks to our troops. The province has 333 schools,br /with 10 under construction. Of these schools, 37 are closed...
There are a lot of interesting, if inaccurate, things going around the internet about the role of war and fighting in Islam. Most claim that Islam, regardless of it’s statements to the contrary, is absolutely not a religion of peace. It is...
Just when you think that nothing can get any dumber–you’re proven wrong. Defense Secretary Gates suggested today that some of our forces that were a part of the surge into Afghanistan could leave the country before the President’s...
The Afgan military and police forces, working with NATO forces, had a lot of activity last week. While none of these events is really big, it’s the series of small discoveries that show that the local people are providing this information. As...
Earlier this month a NATO airstrike killed a number of civilians in Afghanistan; that was very unfortunate, but certainly not what was intended. So General McChrystal, the commander of US and Nato forces, took his apology for a weekend airstrike...
Marine recon teams were inserted by helicopter behind Taliban lines last Friday as the US-led force stepped up operations to break resistance in the besieged enemy stronghold of Marjah. The before-dawn insertion of about two dozen Marines was into...