Afghan surge takes a fruitful twist

[bemildred]

ASADABAD, Afghanistan - The slight Californian agronomist who traded in his dreadlocks for a beard before leaving for his first deployment in a military zone is often mistaken by American soldiers he works around as a "terp" - short for interpreter. He wryly notes that "terp" in the local Pashtu language also means radish, a vegetable that grows well here in eastern Afghanistan.

"Only once have I been mistaken for a US Special Forces fighter," joked Pedro Torrez, 35, who is one in a small but expanding army of experts that the Barack Obama administration hopes can help defeat al-Qaeda and its affiliated jihadi groups.

Torrez (pictured at right) and other experts like him represent the "soft power", also known as "smart power", that the administration believes can alter the outlooks of young Afghans who join forces with hardcore insurgents. It is a strategy that defies the tried and futile logic of what the George W Bush administration set out to do here in 2001: eradicate one "bad guy" at a time in a zero-sum game still glorified on a T-shirt sold on American bases here that reads "The Taliban Hunt Club".

More likely to undermine the insurgents than the thousands of fresh US troops on their way to Afghanistan are experts like Torrez, say diplomats and soldiers. Torrez's best weapons? Eggplants, walnuts, pomegranates, grapes and - not to be overlooked - beehives and radishes.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KD01Df01.html

[ensho]

1. good idea that just may work

nt

[Mopar151]

2. Best thing we can do

When we replace land mines with seedlings, and cluster bombs with baby goats, we all win....

(Except for the psychos and sleazeballs who only seem to care that others are miserable)