Word: marjah
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...practically nonexistent local government, led by a district governor who insisted on keeping his office at the battalion's forward operating base, rather than among the people. "And then the Afghan army regiment we were supposed to partner with was diverted to Helmand province, for the battle in Marjah," says Brown. And the so-called civilian surge - the civil and economic development component of the offensive, led by the State Department - arrived late and weak. "So the 1/12's been out there, pretty much alone," a State Department official based in Kandahar told me. "No Afghan military partner, a lousy...
COMMANDER JEFFREY EGGERS, a top adviser to General Stanley McChrystal, on the reluctance of U.S. and NATO commanders to eradicate opium crops in Marjah; the stance is part of an effort to win over Afghans residing in former Taliban territory...
...uniting residents against the Afghan soldiers who destroyed their opium crops. "Eradicating marijuana and opium fields can breed resentment by people and be destabilizing," says John Dempsey, a rule-of-law adviser to U.S. and Afghan officials for the U.S. Institute of Peace. He cites the town of Marjah, in Helmand province, where U.S. forces rolled tanks over poppy fields in a major offensive in February, two years after Afghan forces destroyed the local farmers' opium crops. After those antidrug offensives, Dempsey says, "local residents felt they preferred the Taliban, because they let them grow opium." About...
Mullen later admitted he was touched by the pride of the elders and the simplicity of the requests. But he had to warn them, "I didn't come here today with any magic formula ... Inshallah, we will provide the services as soon as possible." The entire Marjah project - which is meant to be a model for all Afghanistan - will rest on the ability of the Afghan government to make good on that. The early returns are not promising. Commanding General Stanley McChrystal promised a "government in a box" that would unwrap itself as soon as the Taliban were tossed from...
Meanwhile, in Marjah, Mangal was telling the local elders that he didn't want them growing poppies next year. He will offer them cash incentives not to. "When you cultivate poppies, you are not contributing to life," he told them. "You can produce food and build our country." A few of the elders raised their eyebrows and nodded at each other; a few others smiled...