Still in Mazar -- My Fitness Test

A late report: While in Kabul, I had to take the CPI Physical Agility Test. This will give you an idea of why we IA’s may be the first group called on to back up the Recon Marines, Delta Force, or the Seals. Here is the test:

1. Walk a quarter mile in 10 minutes or less,

2. Walk up and down a 10-step minimum staircase,

3. Lift/press 20 pounds over head, and

4. (this is the one that really separates the athletes from the couch potatoes) Walk 50 feet carrying 20 pounds of additional weight.

Fortunately, I have been carrying at least 40 pounds of additional weight for many years, so I was able to make it through number four with only mild exhaustion. I just hope they don’t up the distance to 60 feet. Anyway, I passed. It may have helped that I was able to take a nap between number one and number two.

This week I readied the training materials for the Introduction to Project Management training. Late in the week we decided to do the training in one day – a “training day” – next Monday.

I was unable to take any field trips because we have no spare tire for the junky F-250. They had sent one from Kabul which proved to have a big unreparable hole in it. I have eight armed men to protect me and small housing complex to house them. There are two “hard” vehicles required for all movements. But, with all this in-place expense, it is necessary to use an abandoned F-250 as the second car (the original was wrecked a couple years ago) and we cannot find enough money to buy a tire for it. In this same vein, some of the site security chiefs are buying ammunition with their own money with which to train the guards.

There are a number of Counter Narcotics Assistance Team (CNAT) related things going on in Balkh Province. Since Balkh Province is virtually poppy free, most of the projects have to do with Public Information, Gender Affairs, and Alternative Livelihoods. Monitoring and Verification are ongoing, of course, but they are more routine. I will mention a few recent programs that seem to be forward looking and promising.

 The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently distributed 30,000 baby chicks to about 1,000 vulnerable women in the two of the districts of Balkh Province. The term “vulnerable” is not well defined, but the intent is that the women be in need of assistance and livelihood support. The Balkh CNAT proposes to augment this, and future, chicken projects with Colombo Plan add-on training for the care, feeding, and medicating of the chickens. The FAO has voice support for this effort.

.The Balkh Agriculture Directorate has recently distributed 2,500,000 saplings (both fruit and non-fruit) to the farmers of all Balkh districts. These saplings will provide alternative livelihood possibilities and will also help reduce soil erosion, regenerate oxygen, improve water retention, and promote a “greening” of the Balkh Province for a better environment. CNAT has been active at these distributions with counter narcotic messages and messages of support for the concept.

.The FAO, in cooperation with the Balkh Forestry Department, is in the process of establishing two pistachio plantations. These plantations will provide research data about the successful development of a pistachio industry in the area. There are obvious alternative livelihood possibilities here, and the plantations may also provide some rehabilitative employment for drug addicts. The head of the Forestry Department has voiced support for CNAT projects and involvement.

.There are a number of other project progressing in which CNAT has various degrees of participation.

.The FAO is distributing several species of animal semen to the local Vetenarians and educating the Balkh farmers about its use to upgrade the quality of the local livestock. The CNAT attends the seminars to give support and get it’s message out.

.There is an ongoing rug weaving training program that provides alternative livelihood as well as rehabilitive employment.

.The CNAT team participates in events such as the recent canal cleaning project in Dedade district and the Afghan New Year festivities to promote the counter narcotic messages.

.There has been $20,000 allocated to Balkh Province CNAT for PI purposes. The CNAT team is studying how to best use it taking into account the Governor’s objectives and how to maximize effectiveness.

I have submitted a recommendation that CPI revisit the policy about arming the AIs. Some of us already have more firearms training and experience than the sum of our Afghan security guards, and it is not particularly difficult to qualify a novice – if someone cannot qualify or does not want to, nothing is lost. With almost every expat here at the Regional Training Center (RTC) being armed (both inside and outside the wire), one wonders why the divergence of US policy.

There is one other small expatriate group here at the RTC that is also not armed. They are the Justice System Support Team – lawyers helping establish a modern criminal justice system – also a State Department project. I have been told that, in a firefight, they are not even allowed to pick up a downed guard’s weapon and use it to defend themselves. Someone actually said that with a straight face. There are clearly some DofS policy makers that are well qualified to work in the financial industry (see the mortgage fiasco last week).

That’s it for this week. It seems like about 90% of my past two weeks writing has been bitching. Oh, well. Maybe I need some R&R – I’m due in another 10 days or so.