Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day to Frank Buckles, the last surviving US veteran of the Great War.

"He was born in February 1901, seven months before President William McKinley was assassinated. If Buckles had been born 14 months earlier, he would have lived in three centuries. He has lived through 46 percent of the nation's life, a percentage that rises each morning when he does."

Amazing stuff. One of my maternal great grandfathers was a WWI vet, as I imagine many of our great grandfathers were. It's hard to believe that some folks from their generation are still out there making it happen.

Happy Memorial Day, everybody. I hope that life slows down enough so that each of us has time today to reflect on the sacrifices (final or otherwise) made by those that have gone before us.

Love for the Provincial Reconstruction Teams

David Ignatius wrote this article about the Jalalabad Provincial Reconstruction Team (JBad PRT) last month, and this article about PRT's in general a few days back.

The PRT is the Army/NATO's basic unit for engaging in development work and in bolstering governance and the rule of law. My job is to assist the brigade commander in planning and implementing strategy for the employment of the 3 PRT's which operate in our area of eastern and central Afghanistan.

Just thought I would share, for those interested in the non-blogging aspects of my life here in Central Asia.

Bombings and other ill tidings

Things here in Afghanistan can be hairy these days.

The AP (via MSNBC) runs down the latest violence in this article.

All I can say is that in spite of all of that, we continue to go about the business of nation building with a great deal of enthusiasm and hope. We don't kid ourselves that "success" (whatever that means) is guaranteed. But incremental progress remains a reality, and a meaningful one at that.

I've had the chance recently to attend a number of conferences--last week in Kabul with the UN, and then this week here at BAF with US agencies (state and USAID, mostly). Everyone is realistic about the prospects here, and about how long the job here will take. There are no silver bullets or quick fixes. Some provinces are really on the up and up (Bamian and Panjshir, for example). Other provinces are struggling w/ violence.

It's interesting to read Jason talk about how easy it is to spend money in Iraq right now. Here in Afghanistan, we are not the main effort. We do not get resourced the way Iraq does. Money is being spent, and in a major way...but I think that all of the agencies involved (UN, State, military) would agree that there is a fixed resource pool here at the Forward Edge that all of us are grabbing at.

On a More Serioius Note...

These stories are a bit played out at this point, but last month's Washington Monthly spends a couple of thousand words trying to explain why the Army is bleeding junior officers. Some of the criticisms are a bit unfair and outdated (we've gotten a lot better at counter-insurgency in the last 4 years), but the general thrust is pretty spot on.

In case you don't really feel like reading the entire thing, let me summarize:

1) Talented Army captain with impeccable credentials (West Point, Georgetown) left the Army over disillusionment w/ senior leadership and not enough time to spend with his impeccably credentialed (UVA, private equity) young wife

2) 98% promotion rate from Captain to Major, where in the past this jump was used to filter out the lower 25% of the officer corps

3) In the long term the Army's senior leaders will be of a lower quality, in the short term there aren't enough junior officers to staff the proposed expansion of the military

A Way Forward in Afghanistan

It's been a slow week around the Army 2.0, as I'm sure many of you have noticed.

There isn't much to report tonight, either...but I thought I would pass along a link to an interesting article.

This analysis of the strategic situation in Afghanistan is lengthy (5000+ words) but comprehensive, and will serve as a good primer for those of you interested in the types of decisions we're facing here in Central Asia.

The article is written by Ali Ahmad Jalali, a professor at the National Defense University. The formating is a little wacky, but all of the numbers that seem like they're sections to an outline are actually citations. The footnotes are at the bottom of the piece.

I also like the article because in this picture Dr. Jalali looks like he could be a boxing promoter if he wasn't so consumed with "development" and "ways forward". I respect men who have options like that.