Word: dari
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...measured in tons, not kilos. But the Marines lacked the element of surprise; to minimize civilian casualties, U.S. and NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal had warned of the offensive weeks in advance. The drug traffickers and many of their Taliban protectors had cleared out long before Operation Moshtarak (Dari for together) began. (See pictures of Person of the Year 2009 runner-up General Stanley McChrystal...
...troops ordered to Afghanistan by Obama in December have given commanders the ability to storm Marja, U.S. officers say. While last year's offensive was largely a U.S.-led affair, this time Afghan forces will account for about half of the troops involved. Operation Moshtarak - "Together" in the Afghan Dari language - is meant to signal growing cooperation between Afghan and foreign forces, and the Afghans' ability to shoulder more of the burden of defending their country. "The Afghan forces all have Marine haircuts right now," McChrystal noted of the local troops preparing to storm the town alongside U.S. Marines...
...opened the U.S. military's first mosque at Norfolk Navy Base in Virginia. The Pentagon is eager for the language skills of Muslims, and has been awarding signing bonuses and expedited citizenship (for the two-thirds of enlistees who are legal aliens) since 2003 to recruits fluent in Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Kurdish and Pashto. (The Army's website, in its typically patriotic but omnisciently weird way, declares these 450 new soldiers - all sent to Afghanistan, Iraq or the Horn of Africa - "100% support the Global War on Terrorism.") During Ramadan, fast-breaking dinners are regularly held at the Pentagon...
...Kabul University, where election excitement ran high before the Aug. 20 vote, students shrugged off the next round, citing a lack of faith in the process. "We have a problem with these politicians," says Abdul Jabar, 23, a student of Dari literature. "There will be very low turnout because the people have no trust." Ali Farhan, 25, a law student, agrees, saying he won't vote. And Darab Raofi, 20, in the social sciences school, says the whole issue has become boring. "We are talking about the same thing happening again and again. I voted the last time...
...think you have the tools to provide all this? We can always use more tools. The first and foremost is, if they offered me a choice between two more divisions or 1,000 people who spoke Pashto and Dari and had a passion for this place, I would absolutely take the 1,000. Actually, I'd even take 500 over those two divisions. Because that is the leverage here. It's the people who understand the situation. It's not blunt instruments that work. You do need some straight military boots on the ground, numbers to provide...