Marine Earns Medal Of Honor For Heroism In Afghanistan
In the seconds after the blast William "Kyle" Carpenter recalled a loud ringing in his ears and an unshakable belief that he was going to die. Carpenter said,"I felt like warm water was being...
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Marine Earns Medal Of Honor For Heroism In Afghanistan - Video
Fun Run in Afghanistan for Breast Cancer
More than 200 Australian Defence Force personnel and International Security Assistance Force partners combined to raise $4160.44 for breast cancer research at the first Mothers Day Classic...
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Fun Run in Afghanistan for Breast Cancer - Video
Sadae Afghanistan - The Traveler - Episode 1
Episode 1 - The Traveler - Yousef Pashtun Creator - Ali Baluch Producer - Omid Roufi Executive Producer - Haroon Naderi Special Thanks To: Sarah Rahimi and Mena Tarin for help with translatio...
By: BALUCHX
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Sadae Afghanistan - The Traveler - Episode 1 - Video
Brig. Gen. Daniel Yoo, commanding general of international forces in southwestern Afghanistan, and Marine Expeditionary Brigade - Afghanistan.
CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan Marine Brig. Gen. Daniel Yoo is slated to be the last coalition commander in southwestern Afghanistan, an impoverished Taliban stronghold checkered with illicit poppy plots. The former head of Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego took charge of Helmand and Nimruz provinces in February, at the helm of Marine Expeditionary Brigade Afghanistan and NATOs regional command.
Now he is closing out an era of heavy combat in the region that began full-force for the Corps in 2009, when then-Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson deployed to Helmand with a brigade that earned a Presidential Unit Citation. Sometime toward the end of this year, Yoo will hand over Camp Bastion-Leatherneck to the 215th Afghan National Army Corps. Then he will fly back to Camp Pendleton with the last American combat troops.
U-T San Diego interviewed Yoo at his Helmand province headquarters about the Marine legacy in Afghanistan, shutting down the international war campaign, and prospects for stability. Excerpts edited for clarity and brevity follow.
Question: Youve been on the job here since February, from snowstorms to triple-digit summer heat. What were your first impressions?
Answer: It was surprising how kinetic (violent) it still was in some regards. And the political climate was very tense because of the Bilateral Security Agreement (the still unsigned contract permitting U.S. troops to stay past this year for training and counterterrorism purposes.) It put additional pressures on operational freedoms, because of the importance of avoiding civilian casualties. The third thing was how mature the 215th Afghan National Army Corps was as opposed to when I had seen them before. Starting with one brigade, and now a full corps.
Q: During my travels around the province I saw that Afghans are running military operations independently for the most part, with little shoulder-to-shoulder partnering with coalition forces.
A: The only people really doing partnered evolutions are special operations forces, and they are pushing toward independent ops. Everything we do now is periodic checks and things that will establish enduring Afghan security institutions.
Q: That means the Afghans will be largely on their own during the summer fighting season. Whats at stake for them?
A: This is a pivotal year. Because we are lifting off, because thats when the NATO mandate ends. Most importantly its the peaceful transition of power (after the presidential runoff election in June.) That will be a big indicator of where this country is going.
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Marine general talks Afghanistan
It's reckoned that as much as 60 percent of Afghanistans gross domestic product has been generated from the presence of foreign troops over the past decade - either directly through military spending in the country, or because of the billions of dollars of aid and investment that followed in its wake.
As recently as 2011, around 45 percent of the government's core budget - money for wages and running costs - and almost all of its funding for new projects was coming from overseas donors.
In 2013, US alone spent $12.9 in the country - $9.95bn of it on security assistance to arm and train Afghan military and police forces.
But with US and NATO forces being withdrawn by the end of this year, that flow of funds is bound to slow down and increase the strain on an economy battered by years of conflict and now uncertain about what the future holds.
Yet Afghanistan is not without its own resources.
It has vast deposits of copper (among the largest in Eurasia), iron, high-grade chrome ore, uranium, beryl, barite, lead, zinc, fluorspar, bauxite, cobalt, lithium, tantalum, emeralds, gold and silver. According to some estimates these reserves are so big and include so many minerals essential to modern industry that Afghanistan has the potential to become one of the most important mining centres in the world, worth well in excess of a trillion US dollars to the Afghani economy.
Little of this has ever been developed because of the security and political situation, but one day it might be - although exactly when, how and by whom, no one knows. For now it just sits there, waiting.
The Afghan emerald is renowned as the best in terms of qualityone of the most crystalline, one of the purest
Raphael Chahboub, emerald dealer
Emerald cities
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Afghanistan's hidden gems