Hi all; Winning hearts and minds in Afghanistan:
Rebuilding Afghanistan, One Bridge At a Time
Rob Schultheis, Time.com, Novembe 30, 2002
TIME takes a ride with the "Chiclets", one of a number of small, heavily-armed U.S. humanitarian forces that is helping to restore the country as part of America's anti-terror campaign.
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Chiclets (the name comes from CHLCs, or "Coalition Humanitarian Liason Cells") are the hot item in America's anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan today. Self-described as the "Peace Corps with guns," they carry out high-impact aid missions the locals want and the U.N. and NGOs have somehow missed. Thirteen teams operate across the country right now, with more than 300 projects in the works ranging from building roads and bridges to supplying schools. Chiclet-5 is a typical team: five of its members are civilians, reservists out of the Knoxville-based 489th Civil Affairs Battalion, while the sixth is a regular Army communications specialist. The team's leader is Lt. Col. Roger Walker, a wry and thoughtful-looking food company executive from Valdosta, Georgia with a permanent case of sunburn.
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A young Hazara man in the bazaar offers his own verdict: "Do you know the American soldiers?" I tell him Yes, I do. "Could you please tell them, they should never leave. They should stay here forever."
time.com
-- Carl |
