Word: mesa
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...troops and their Afghan allies were conducting random checks outside the city of Spin Boldak, a smuggler's haven near the Pakistani border, when a motorcyclist and his passenger roared past a checkpoint. The Americans and Afghans gave chase down a potholed road stretching across a broad mesa dotted with camels. During the pursuit, the turbaned man on the back of the motorcycle reached under his shawl for a grenade but fumbled it, blowing off his own legs. His comrade, Abdul Ghani, surrendered and later confessed a crucial bit of intelligence: he belonged to a 60-strong rebel legion holed...
...bridge over the Fuladi River, at the east end of Bamiyan's ramshackle bazaar. When completed it will help revive Bamiyan's war-shattered economy, and Col. Walker is also using the project to provide employment for some of the dirt-poor landless refugees camped on a mesa north of town. But there is trouble: only a half-dozen men are working, thigh-deep in the cold water, shoveling out foundations for the concrete bridge abutments...
...local contractor tells Col. Walker that he offered jobs to the refugees on the mesa but had no takers. The Colonel's face tightens. "Well, if they don't want to work, I guess I can't make 'em," he scowls. "Okay, let's saddle up!" he yells to his team...
...Chiclets head straight for the refugee encampment on the mesa. These people are the subject of one of Col. Walker's personal crusades. They were relocated to this dusty, windswept plateau, two miles from the nearest water, by a European NGO which promised to build them housing here. Since then they have languished in patchwork tents, neglected and forgotten. If Walker hadn't come up with a two month supply of wheat this summer, they would have starved to death by now. The Chiclets are trying to arrange permanent housing for them before winter hits; just in case, Col. Walker...
...finally decided to take a leave from Harvard following the winter recess and has been living at home in Costa Mesa, Calif. ever since...