Re: [Marxism] Moderator's note

["Ruthless Critic of All that Exists" <ok.president+marxml@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 11:01 PM, Michael Smith <mjs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:49:42 -0400
> "Ruthless Critic of All that Exists" <ok.president+marxml@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
>> 2) To accomplish that, the US may do "humanitarian" things (such as
>> setting up schools, hospitals, etc) -- not out of "humanitarian"
>> reasons, but out of "cynical" reasons.
>
> This is a little out of date. The Marshall Plan kinda worked
> this way -- and posed, I suppose, the same questions -- but
> times have changed. They don't build hospitals any more -- hell,
> they don't even do that at home. They build bases.

What do you think of the article (below) from NPR? Does it consist of
propaganda/misinformation?

RC

U.S. Teams Build Infrastructure in Afghanistan
National Public Radio (NPR)

<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16123139>

by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

 All Things Considered,
November 8, 2007 ·

In Afghanistan, northeastern Kunar province is the busiest combat
theater in the country for U.S. troops.

Afghan and foreign militants stage almost daily attacks. Ten U.S.
soldiers have been killed in Kunar since June.

U.S. military officers in the volatile region say soldiers recently
managed to take out key militant command posts and disrupt their
supply lines. But they hasten to add that there is no military
solution to the war in Kunar. Instead, they are looking to a
provincial reconstruction team to turn the tide. The team, made up of
U.S. service members and civilians, is planning to build a road
through the most dangerous part of Kunar — the Korengal Valley.

[...]

The road he is talking about will be humble, by American standards. It
will cost $11 million, and will be about 18 feet wide and 26 miles
long. But LeGree, who heads Kunar's provincial reconstruction team,
says this road could do more to harm the Taliban here than any
military action.

"We're not necessarily looking to build fast. We're looking to make an
economic impact," LeGree explained earlier from his office at the
provincial reconstruction team headquarters. "So, what we are looking
to do is provide a lot of employment — and it lines the incentives for
what we are looking for, which is a fighting-age male holding a shovel
instead of a gun."

Work on the road begins next month. It will take more than a year to
complete and will provide hundreds of jobs for Kunar's largely
unemployed population.

LeGree is especially keen on getting the contractor to hire young
Korengal Valley men, who might otherwise be lured by the insurgents.
He says a regular paycheck will make the young men think twice about
risking their lives fighting better equipped U.S. troops.

It's a strategy that LeGree and many other American officers here say
is the only way to win the war in Afghanistan. It's a strategy that
calls for boosting access and trade to the mountainous country's
isolated communities — and building government centers, schools and
hospitals. It's a strategy that aims to improve the lives of Afghans
and thereby reduce the appeal of the Taliban and other insurgent
groups.

LeGree says this approach has already brought vast improvements in
Kunar. Newly paved roads have sparked a boom in commerce in the
province's Pech Valley. Fighting there has largely stopped.

[...]

Since the Pech Valley road was built, more than a dozen new stores
have sprung up in a village called Nangalam. Vendors sell fresh fruit
and goods from major cities that are now accessed in hours, rather
than days.

Eager to spur that growth, Bryan Rhodes recently joined LeGree on a
trip to Nangalam. Rhodes is a contractor for the U.S. Agency for
International Development. With the help of a translator, he
brainstorms with shopkeepers on how American money might help.

"If you had $25,000, let's say, to invest in a business in Nangalam,
what would you invest in?" Rhodes asks a salt vendor. "Or a small
factory, what would be the best small factory in Pech?"

The vendor says his community could benefit from a flour mill. Rhodes
says it's a good idea.

"You don't have to use a lot of power for the flour mill," Rhodes
says. "It can be animal driven, it can be water driven."

The reconstruction team gets a warm reception as it moves across the
Pech Valley this particular day, suggesting the strategy is working.

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