Book Review: Stones Into Schools

Stones Into Schools by Greg Mortenson: I was finishing up Three Cups of Tea as I headed into Iraq for my six month deployment. I gave the book a very positive review by stating that I think it should be a mandatory read for politicians, the military members, and the children in our school systems. I made that bold statement because I felt I learned more in the book about the region we have been at war with for the past decade than I have anywhere else. More specifically I stated, "I learned more about Islam and the countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan than I did in all my time in the military. The book taught me more about the real issues in that area of the world than any news article I have ever read. I am kind of ashamed to admit that, but it is what it is."

So it is quite fitting that I started Greg Mortenson's second book as I began to transition out of Iraq. A girl that was in my wife's sorority in college happened to come across my review of Three Cups of Tea and she also happens to work for Penguin Publishing who released both works under their name. In a very touching sign of appreciation for what I was contributing to overseas, she sent me the sequel along with a few other Penguin releases. I thought that was pretty cool on her part and the part of her employer.

Mortenson’s best-seller, Three Cups of Tea (2009), introduced his commitment to peace through education and became a book-club phenomenon. He now continues the story of how the Central Asia Institute (CAI) built schools in northern Afghanistan. Descriptions of the harsh geography and more than one near-death experience impress readers as new faces join Mortenson’s loyal “Dirty Dozen” as they carefully plot a course of school-building through the Badakshan province and Wakhan corridor. Mortenson also shares his friendships with U.S. military personnel, including Admiral Mike Mullen, and the warm reception his work has found among the officer corps. The careful line CAI threads between former mujahideen commanders, ex-Taliban and village elders, and the American soldiers stationed in their midst is poetic in its political complexity and compassionate consideration. Using schools not bombs to promote peace is a goal that even the most hard-hearted can admire, but to blandly call this book inspiring would be dismissive of all the hard work that has gone into the mission in Afghanistan as well as the efforts to fund it. Mortenson writes of nothing less than saving the future, and his adventure is light years beyond most attempts. Mortenson did not reach the summit of K2, but oh, the heights he has achieved. --Colleen Mondor of Booklist

Mrs. Mondor's review of the piece is dead on. But what I found particularly intriguing was the progress that was made since the first book was published. Stopping at the accomplishments detailed within Three Cups of Tea would be enough for Greg and his CAI counterparts to feel that have lived a worthy life of positive contribution to this world. However, to see how Three Cups of Tea has inspired people across the world while unifying people with seemingly incompatible views and beliefs is truly inspiring. I think the book speaks volumes in showing that a good idea founded on honorable principles can truly change the world even if it is one small step at a time.

I also really enjoyed the praise that Greg Mortenson gives the US troops. Not just because I am a military member, but because I think the work that our servicemen and women are doing often gets lost beneath the ever-present political banter of the major media outlets. Greg showcases how it was the military that first began embracing the Three Cups of Tea "education not bombs" strategy of eradicating extremism. And it wasn't the high profile Generals either. It was the everyday leaders of our nation's fighting force. A grass roots movement so to speak that has undoubtedly helped shape the strategy of our efforts overseas.

The book optimistically ends detailing that although there is a long way to go in that part of the world immense progress has been made with regard to education opportunities, especially for young girls. During a time where it is difficult to be anything but pessimistic about our politician's assessments of our nation's two wars it is good to see that some tangible gains have been made with regard to human progress. I highly recommend both books and offer my notes from Stones Into Schools below.

Forward by Khaled Hosseini:
- 8 years into war Afghanistan is considered a failing state but there are success stories as well and most meaningful is education
- 1/2 million children attending school and 40% are girls
- "If you educate a boy you educate an individual, but if you educate a girl you educate a community."

Introduction:
- Tells of Masreen, a Pakistani women, and her struggles to pursue education
- "When it comes down to it, I am nothing more than a fellow who took a wrong turn in the mountains and never quite managed to find his way home" - Greg Mortenson
- He has made more than 680 appearances in more than 270 cities in the last three years
- "When you hand this money over to the folks over there on the other side of the world," said one local businessman, who had tears in his eyes as he spoke, "just tell them that it comes from a little town in the mountains of Colorado so that their daughters can go to school."
- 1 year of education in primary school can result in an increase in income of 10-20% for women later in life
- Simply put, young woman are the single biggest potential agents of change in the developing world. A phenomenon that is sometimes referred to as the girl effect.
- In Muslim societies a person who has been manipulated into believing in extremist violence or terrorism often seeks the permission of his mother before he may join a militant jihad, and educated women as a rule tend to withhold their blessing.
- Taliban targets regions for recruitment where female literacy is low
- It is important to be clear about the fact that the aim of the Central Asia Institute is not indoctrination. We have no agenda other than assisting rural women with their two most frequent requests: "We don't want our babies to die, and we want our children to go to school."
- "In the end, the thing I care about, the flame that burns at the center of my work, the heat around which I cup my hands, are their stories." - Greg Mortenson
- "The first cup of tea you share with us, you are a stranger. The second cup, you are a friend. But with the third cup, you become family - and for our families we are willing to do anything, even die." - Haji Ali

Part I: The Premise:
Prologue:
- "The education and empowerment of women throughout the world cannot fail to result in more caring, tolerant, just and peaceful life for all." - Aung San Suu Kyi

The People At The End Of The Road:
- "I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve." - Albert Schweitzer
- They start at the end of the road and work their way back. Serve the most remote areas overlooked by other NGOs
- When ordinary human beings perform extraordinary acts of generosity, endurance, or compassion we are all made richer by their example
- Works alliances with anyone including Taliban and hires inexperienced based on gut instinct
- He learned it from his father who had done the same in Africa with a hospital

The Man With The Broken Hand:
- "Mountains can never reach each other despite their bigness. But humans can." - Afghan proverb
- Sarfraz Khan has a tough but incredible background
- Like everywhere else in Afghanistan, geography is far less important than relationships
- When you comprehend the dynamics of power, everything else falls into place
- "And so it was that our conversation on that snowy evening in Zuudkhan marked the beginning of the greatest friendship of my life." - Greg Mortenson
- "For me, a hard life is no problem. But for our children, this life is no good. We have little food, poor houses, and no school. We know you have been building schools in Pakistan, so will you come and build the same for us in Afghanistan? We will donate the land, the stones, the labor, everything that you ask. Come now and stay with us for the winter as our guest. We will take tea together. We will butcher our biggest sheep. We will discuss matters properly and we will plan a school." - Roshan Khan a Kirghiz rider
- Greg promises to build the Kirghiz a school way up in the Wakhan

The Zero Year:
- Of the many ways in which the Taliban perverted and brutalized the tenets of Islam, however, nothing quite matched the crimes that they visited upon their sisters, daughters, mothers, and wives
- Within the first week of taking Kabul the Taliban stripped away these privileges and summarily rendered the female population silent and invisible
- Winter 2002 = zero year in Afghanistan
- After 9/11 $680M in aide money promised by President Bush had been "redirected" to build runways and bulk up supply depots in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar for the upcoming invasion of Iraq. Afghanistan was now receiving less than a third of the per-capita assistance that had been plowed into reconstruction efforts in Bosnia, East Timor, or Rwanda, and of that less than half was going to long term development projects such as education.

The Sound Of Peace:
- Sarfraz delivered the hand recorded census of the Kirghiz and Greg appointed him the "most remote area project manager."
- "Look here. Look at these hills. There has been far too much dying in these hills. Every rock, every boulder that you see before you is one of my mujahadeen, shahids, martyrs, who sacrificed their lives fighting the Russians and the Taliban. Now we must make their sacrifice worthwhile. We must turn these stones into schools." - Sadhar Khan
- "You may be a veteran but you are not a warrior because you have never fought in battle. Sitting here watching the water rush past is the only way that I can justify having gone to war. The reason I fought the Soviets and then the Taliban was for moments such as the one we're having right now. Unless you have been inside the fire of a battle, this is something that you will never understand." - Sadhar Khan

Style Is Everything:
- "War has forced us to starve not only our bodies but also our minds. This should never again happen to my people." - Sadhar Khan
- The pleading was always polite but the needs were endless
- Official paperwork was always a challenge due to the (lack of) Afghanistan's functioning government

The Seal Of The Kirghiz Khan:
- "But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, you can see the stars." - Martin Luther King Jr.
- In the 90's drug trade flourished to fund the mujahadeens war efforts. Eventually it began to infiltrate peasants and remote villages
- Up to 1/4 of the adult population were addicts
- Karzai made promises to Abdul Rashid Khan but didnt follow through
- The desecration of the Koran at Guantanamo had the entire region enraged. Proof that we are growing increasingly interconnected in this world
- Elders stopped the rioting and ransacking of the CAI school in Baharak. The elders claimed it as their school. They had ownership.

Qayamat (The Apocalypse) Part II:
A Dark and Distant Roar:
- Pakistan earthquake occurred on 8 Oct 2005
- In the past 50 years Pakistan has suffered through 4 wars, two political coups, floods, political assassinations, and other disruptions but never anything like the earthquake. 7.6 magnitude that triggered 2,252 landslides. Over 86,000 deaths making it the 12th most destructive earthquake of all time. A quarter of those deaths were children in school. Over 3,794 schools in Kashmir and 2,159 schools in the Northwest frontier were destroyed.

No Idea What To Do:
- CAI went to Kashmir to give aid after the quake
- US Chinook helicopters were helping the relief effort. "Sarfraz talked to some of the pilots and learned that those who had served in Iraq could not believe that the people of Pakistan actually liked them. In the coming years, many of these pilots and their crew members would look back upon those weeks as the highlight of their military careers."
- Islamic extremists were often better at aid than the various NGOs
- Combining aid with ideology was a highly effective strategy. "I have always been dismayed by the West's failure, or unwillingness, to recognize that establishing secular schools that offer children a balanced and non extremist form of education is probably the cheapest and most effective way of combating this kind of indoctrination." - Greg Mortenson

Farzana's Desks:
- "When you take the time to actually listen, with humility, to what people have to say, it's amazing what you can learn. Especially if the people who are doing the talking also happen to be children." - Greg Mortenson
- Greg's daughter tells him to start putting playgrounds in the schoolyards. He is amazed he hasn't thought of it.
- Taliban sympathizers even get a kick out of the playgrounds

Sarfraz's Promise:
- Sarfraz got an infection and had surgery
- Recruited Chinese to start building earthquake proof schools
- He was following in his father's footsteps without ever really intending to

The Chance That Must Be Taken:
- "History is a race between education and catastrophe." - H.G. Wells
- CAI started sponsoring girls for advanced education
- Often family and community object
- With the success of the first book Greg was travelling and fundraising nonstop. He crashed and had to return to home to rest. He became the fundraiser and sacrificed his trips to the schools, the thing he loved most.

Part III: The School On The Roof Of The World:
An Email From An American Colonel:
- "Education is the long term solution to fanaticism." - Colonel Christopher Kolenda
- "People in that part of the world are used to death and violence. And if you tell them 'We're sorry your father died, but he died a martyr so that Afghanistan could be free,' and if you offer them compensation and honor their sacrifice, I think that people will support us even now. But the worst thing you can do is what we're doing--ignoring the victims by calling them collateral damage and not even trying to count the numbers of the dead. Because to ignore them is to deny they ever existed, and there is no greater insult in the Islamic world. For that, we will not be forgiven." - Greg Mortenson
- "I'm no military expert and these figures might not be exactly right. But as best I can tell, we've launched 114 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Afghanistan so far. Now take the cost of one of those missiles, tipped with a Raytheon guidance system, which I think is about $840,000. For that much money, you could build dozens of schools that could provide tens of thousands of students with a balanced non extremist education over the course of a generation. Which do you think will make us more secure?" - Greg Mortenson
- It was the American military officers who felt the US strategy needed to be revamped in both wars
- "We can't kill our way to victory." - Admiral Mike Mullen
- The military embraced Greg and Three Cups of Tea
- "More than almost any other profession I have encountered, members of the military seem willing to acknowledge their failures and mistakes and to recognize that this is the first step towards learning and growth." - Greg Mortenson

The Man From The Jalozai Refugee Camp:
- Locals went against the Taliban and had girls attend school
- Unknowingly the schools they built in Afghanistan formed an arc that pointed to the birthplace of the Taliban

Barnstorming Through Badakshan:
- Finally certified as an NGO in Afghanistan
- Honored by Musharraf of Pakistan. Ironic they have better relations with Pakistan than our own government
- Musharraf is impeached
- They met with Musharraf for more than 4 hours. "Most high level delegations, they only get very short meetings with Musharraf. The President of China --maybe 30 minutes. George Bush, maximum 15 minutes!" - Nazir
- "The contrast between my activities and those of most of my staff seemed to underscore an even larger problem: the extent to which I have been forced to pull away from the aspects of my work that I find personally and spiritually fulfilling in order to attend to what is generally referred to as 'the big picture.'" I have similar feelings with my own charity as I have been forced geographically to tend to the bigger picture without being heavily involved in the gratifying groundwork.

A Meeting Of Two Warriors:
- "The Muslim community is a subtle world we don't fully--and don't always-- attempt to understand. Only through a shared appreciation of people's culture, needs, and hopes for the future can we hope ourselves to supplant the extremist narrative. We cannot capture hears and minds. We must engage them; we must listen to them, one heart and one mind at a time." - Admiral Mike Mullen
- Started neighborhood literacy centers for older women and it exploded
- "Wakil quickly realized that this enthusiasm was the byproduct of taking a group of women who had been forced to lead restricted and sequestered lives, putting them into the same room, and simply giving them the license to dream."
- Admiral Mullen inaugurated one of the CAI schools

The Point Of Return:
- Back in the Kirghiz but can't figure out how to get supplies in
- "How do you build a school on the Roof of the World when transporting the construction materials from any direction is virtually impossible?"
- Greg slipped into an intense fever and is forced to return home short of the Kirghiz village

The Last Best School:
-Abdul Rashid Khan the leader of the Kirghiz fell ill. Greg broke his promise and asked the US military for help. It made its way all the way up to Gen Patraeus and McChrystal
- The mission was too close to China and too risky based on fuel
- "This was no the outcome I had hoped for, but as I read the General's message I also understood that it was the correct decision. Although the assessment team's calculus may have sounded somewhat cold, it underscored the most important question to ask: Would it be right to place the lives of two American helicopter crews on the line while risking international incident on behalf of a patient who was probably beyond help? In my heart, I knew that the answer was no." - Greg Mortenson

Epilogue:
- "We live at the edge of the world, and since no help is going to arrive, we have no choice but to do this ourselves. This school is our priority. At this point, we have almost no resources left. But starting from this moment, everything that we have will be focused on one goal. Inshallah, we are going to finish what we have started." - Abdul Rashid Khan
- Nearly a decade after Greg's initial promise to the Kirghiz the school was finally finished
- "Like it or not, you see, my reasons for wanting to get a first hand glimpse of that gem of a school in the High Pamir are probably not compatible with the role that I played in its completion. Because when it really comes down to it, aside from the service that I performed as a kind of one man yak train that faithfully transported the donations of ordinary Americans to the far side of the world, what was accomplished at Bozai Gumbaz had nothing whatsoever to do with me. A fact that for a time, I must now admit, was not easy for me to accept." - Greg Mortenson
- "By succeeding at an endeavor in which a government, an army, and an NGO had failed, a band of impoverished nomads were able to construct, on the loftiest and most distant corner of their republic, something even greater than a school. They had raised a beacon of hope that called out not only to the Kirghiz themselves, but also to every village and town in Afghanistan where children yearn for education, and where fathers and mothers dream of building a school whose doors will open not only to their sons but also to their daughters. Including, and perhaps especially, those places that are surrounded by a ring of men with Kalashnikovs who help to sustain the grotesque lie that flinging battery acid into the face of a girl who longs to study arithmetic is somehow in keeping with the teachings of the Koran." - Greg Mortenson

Book Review: Three Cups of Tea

Before I started studying for my GMAT and dropped all extracurricular activities like reading, I had started Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The book had been recommended to me by a few different people, but I guess I just didn't know enough about it to read it sooner. I really wish I had heeded friend's recommendation sooner as this book was truly one of the best, most inspiring true stories I have ever read. Not only that, I found that as I read the book that the story takes place in a world that I have a particular interest in given the nature of my current work in the armed forces.

Below is an excerpt from the publisher on what the book is all about:
In 1993 Greg Mortenson was the exhausted survivor of a failed attempt to ascend K2, an American climbing bum wandering emaciated and lost through Pakistan's Karakoram Himalaya. After he was taken in and nursed back to health by the people of an impoverished Pakistani village, Mortenson promised to return one day and build them a school. From that rash, earnest promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time — Greg Mortenson's one-man mission to counteract extremism by building schools, especially for girls, throughout the breeding ground of the Taliban.

Award-winning journalist David Oliver Relin has collaborated on this spellbinding account of Mortenson's incredible accomplishments in a region where Americans are often feared and hated. In pursuit of his goal, Mortenson has survived kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, repeated death threats, and wrenching separations from his wife and children. But his success speaks for itself. At last count, his Central Asia Institute had built fifty-five schools. Three Cups of Tea is at once an unforgettable adventure and the inspiring true story of how one man really is changing the world — one school at a time.

When I searched for reviews on the book they were overwhelmingly positive. I thought of how I would review this book beyond the standard "it's good, read it," and I came up with a simple review that I think speaks volume about the power of this book. When I began the book I thought it would be great for other military members to get some insight into what else the region is all about outside of our current conflict in the area. However, by the time I finished I felt much more strongly than that. I think this book should be a mandatory read for every politician in our nation. I think it should be a predeployment requirement for each sailor, soldier, and airman that heads to the theater. And more importantly, I think it should be read in schools to children. I learned more about Islam and the countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan than I did in all my time in the military. The book taught me more about the real issues in that area of the world than any news article I have ever read. I am kind of ashamed to admit that, but it is what it is. Surely that is partially my fault. Part it is likely just the nature of what actually makes it into our short attention spans as Americans. I imagine that many others would feel the same way I did as I read the book, and a little understanding could take us a long way in resolving or at least understanding the conflict we find ourselves in. My enjoyment of the book had me taking a plethora of notes and quotes that I have shared below. Do yourself a favor and pick up this book.

Here are some notes and quotes I took from this fine piece of literature:

Introduction:
- General Bhangoo cites Mortenson as the most remarkable person he has ever met. He served as Musharraf's pilot and has met many world leaders

Failure:
- When it is dark enough you can see the stars
- Stuck and stranded in the mountains freezing, "Sleep in this cold seemed out of the question, so Mortenson lay beneath the stars salting the sky and decided to examine the nature of his failure.
- He made piece with his failure to honor his deceased sister Christa. It was his body that had failed, not his spirit and every body has its limits. He for the first time in his life had found the absolute limit of his.

The Wrong Side of the River:
- "All summer I'd looked at these mountains as goals, totally focused on the biggest one, K2. I'd thought about their elevation and the technical challenges they presented to me as a climber. But that morning for the first time, I simply saw them. It was overwhelming." - Greg Mortenson. A great symbolism for life itself. Sometimes we must sit back and take it in.

Progress and Perfection:
- "Can you imagine a fourth grade class in America, alone, without a teacher, sitting there quietly and working on their lessons? I felt like my heart was being torn out. There was a fierceness in their desire to learn, despite how mightily everything was stacked against them, that reminded me of Christa. I knew I had to do something." - Greg Mortenson
-Standing next to Haji Ali, on the ledge overlooking the valley, with such a crystalline view of the mountains he'd come halfway around the world to measure himself against, climbing K2 to place a necklace on its summit suddenly felt beside the point. There was a much more meaningful gesture he could make in honor of his sister's memory. He put his hands on Haji Ali's shoulders, as the old man had done to him dozens of times since they'd shared their first cup of tea. "I'm going to build you a school," he said, not yet realizing that with those words, the path of his life had just detoured down another trail, a route far more serpentine and arduous than the wrong turns he'd taken since retreating from K2. "I will build a school," Mortenson said. "I promise."

Self Storage:
-"Greatness is always built on this foundation: the ability to appear, speak and act, as the most common man."
- The older I get the more I appreciate my childhood. It was paradise.
- His father built a hospital in Tanzania focused on giving Tanzanians opportunity. The other expats were not happy when he said in 10 years I see all the department heads as Tanzanians.
- Watching him up there I felt so proud that this big barrel chested man was my father. He taught me, he taught all of us, that if you believe in yourself you can accomplish anything.
- After that the family moved to America in St. Paul.
- Greg signed up for the army his senior year since they didn't have much money.
- His father passed, then later his sister.

500 Letters One Check:
- He went right to the top writing letters to Oprah and the networks asking for money. Great lesson in going for it.
- He lived in his car and showered at the gym to save money for the school.
- Spoke to kids
- "But the kids got it right away. When they saw the pictures they couldn't believe that there was a place where children sat outside in the cold weather and tried to hold classes without teachers. They decided to do something about it.

Rawalpindi's Rooftops at Dusk:
- The quest for good can begin with a stubborn persistence to do what you say you are going to do.
- Take the first step and just keep walking

Hard Way Home:
- Not for the first time Mortenson wondered if Pakistan wasn't more of an idea than a country.
- Completed his treacherous journey and felt he had already won. I think when you set out to do something meaningful it often doesn't matter how far you get, because you got somewhere.

Beaten by the Braldu:
- Mortenson is an embodiment of the importance of human relationships. I don't think he could have succeeded had he not earned the respect of others he needed to help him.
- Mortenson felt a note of regret toward Akhmadu. He only wanted the children of his village to have the school that the government of Pakistan had failed to provide. But Mortenson's anger at Janjungpa and Changazi, at their scheming and dishonesty, spilled over the gratitude he felt for Akhmalu's months of uncomplaining service at K2 base camp until it became the same disheartening dun color as the surface of this ugliest of rivers.
- Perhaps he had been too harsh with these people: The economic disparity between them was just too great. Could it be that even a partially employed American who lived out of a storage locker could seem like little more than a flashing neon dollar sign to people in the poorest region of one of the world's poorest countries?
- When you reach out it can be overwhelming because you can't help everyone.

The People Have Spoken:
- He loses his girlfriend and his job
- "Pull yourself together Greg. Of course you have hit a few speed bumps.But what you are trying to do is much more difficult than climbing K2."
- Lou Reichardt knew something about suffering for and reaching difficult goals. His acknowledgement of how tough a path Mortenson was trying to walk made Mortenson feel that he hadn't failed. He just hadn't completed the climb. Yet.

Building Bridges:
- Rich societies can learn from the ancient societies about sustainment page 112
- "He operated as one of them, and I wondered how in the hell an American had managed that"
- Greg was humble and dodged credit. He did all the symbolic things to empower the Balti

Six Days:
-"I don't know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything,I have enjoyed great satisfaction from my climb of Mt. Everest. But my most worthwhile things have been the building of schools and medical clinics. That has given me more satisfaction that a footprint on a mountain" - Sir Edmund Hillary

Haji Ali's Lesson:
- "It may seem absurd to believe that a "primitive" culture in the Himalaya has anything to teach our industrialized society. But our search for a future that works keeps spiraling back to an ancient connection between ourselves and the earth, an interconnectedness that ancient cultures have never abandoned." Helena Norberg-Hodge
- Watching this scene straight out of the Bible stories I'd learned in Sunday school I thought how much the different faiths had in common, how you could trace so many of their traditions back to the same root." - Greg Mortenson
- He stumbled his way into his life's work
- "That day Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I've ever learned in my life. We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly. We're the country of thirty minute power lunches and two minute football drills. Our leaders thought their 'shock and awe' campaign could end the war in Iraq before it even started. Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them." - Mortenson
-"It was one of the most humbling things I have ever seen. Haji Ali had just handed over half the wealth of the village to that crook, but he was smiling like he'd just won a lottery," Mortenson said. "Don't be sad. Long after all those rams are dead and eaten this school will still stand. Haji Mehdi has food today. Now our children have education forever." - Hali Aji

A Smile Should Be More Than A Memory:
- The Wazir are not loyal to Afghanistan or Pakistan and have fiercely resisted worlds great powers throughout history
- Even the Taliban realized the importance of schools and spared Mortenson after eight days of captivity

Equilibrium:
- Hoerni's dying wish was to see the Korphe school
- Greg won people over by adapting and immersing himself in their way of life
- Greg removed a sick woman's placenta "For a Balti to let a foreign man, an infidel, have that kind of intimate contact with your wife took an incredible leap of faith. I felt humbled by how much they'd come to trust me,"
- Greg kept his word and delivered the picture to Hoerni
- "C'est moi, Jean. I built a school in the Karakoram Himalaya," he boasted. "What have you done for the last fifty years."
- "Jean Hoerni had the foresight to lead us to the twenty first century with cutting edge technology, but he also had the rare vision to look behind and reach out to people living as they have for centuries."

Mortenson in Motion:
- "We all sat there laughing and sipping tea peacefully. An infidel and representatives from three warring sects of Islam. And I thought if we can get along this well, we can accomplish anything. The British policy was 'divide and conquer' but I say 'unite and conquer.'"
- A boy is sent by his father to go to school and he is scared and confused but his father knows it is the right thing to do. People were inspired and gave him money to contribute to his education. Similar to military service in US.
- Greg gets it. He is likely doing as much to combat extremism as anyone...through education and opportunities
- "Once you educate the boys they tend to leave and go search for work in the cities, but the girls stay home, become leaders in the community, and pass on what they've learned. If you really want to change a culture, to empower women, improve basic hygiene and health care, and fight high rates of infant mortality, the answer is to educate girls."

Cherry Trees in the Sand:
- Good political tidbits. The Mujahadeen liked Bill Clinton for saving Muslims in Bosnia. Swedes are a peaceful country but they sell many arms.
- "I wish Westerners who misunderstand Muslims could have seen Syed Abbas in action that day. They would see that most people who practice the true teachings of Islam, even conservative mullahs like Syed, believe in peace and justice, not in terror. Just as the Torah and Bible teach concern for those in distress, the Koran instructs all Muslims to make caring for widows, orphans, and refugees a priority."
- "I have heard some people say Americans are bad. But we love Americans. They are the most kind people for us. They are the only ones who cared to help us." Fatima Batool
- "What we are trying to do may be just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less because of that missing drop." Greg Mortenson
- The Oregonian was the first to tell his tale
- Terrorist impact. "A politically volatile area, rural Pakistan is a breeding ground for terrorists who share anti-American sentiment. Illiterate young boys often wind up in terrorist camps. When we increase literacy we substantially reduce tensions."
- The wealthy lured him out to various events with promises of donations but he often returned empty handed
- "They were following the same philosophy as I was. Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen's idea that you can change a culture by giving its girls the tools to grow up educated so they can help themselves. It was amazing to see the idea in action, working so well after only a generation, and it fired me up to fight for girls' education in Pakistan."
- "I don't care where the money comes from. It's all washed clean in the service of God." - Mother Teresa
- The burden of success came in the form of a long line of people wanting something from him
- "In times of war, you often hear leaders--Christian, Jewish, and Muslim--saying 'God is on our side.' But that isn't true. In war, God is on the side of the refugees, widows, and orphans."

A Village Called New York:
- Wahhabism is the Saudi conservative fundamentalist offshoot of Sunni Islam
- Oil money is smuggled into Pakistan's poorest regions and used to build mosques and schools for "Islamic Education" in other words to promote extremism.
- For Pakistanis it is simple economics. Free room and board and an education at Madrassa centers
- "Neither the teachers nor the students had any formal background in maths, science, history, or geography." The madrassa students were "the rootless and restless, the jobless and the economically deprived with little self knowledge. They admired war because it was the only occupation they could possibly adapt to. Their simple belief in messianic, puritan Islam which had been drummed into them by simple village mullahs was the only prop they could hold on to and which gave their beliefs some meaning."
- "The work Mortenson is doing building schools is giving thousands of students what they need most--a balanced education and the tools to pull themselves out of poverty. But we need many more like them. His schools are just a drop in the bucket when you look at the scale of the problem in Pakistan. Essentially, the state is failing its students on a massive scale and making them far too easy for extremists who run many of the madrassas to recruit."
- Al Qaeda assassinated the Lion of Panjshir Ahmed Shah Massoud before Sept 11 to destroy one man capable of uniting Northern Afghanistan around the American military
- Greg was right down the road from Osama on 9-11
- "It is by fate that Allah the Almighty has brought us together in this hour. Today is a day that you children will remember forever and tell your children and grandchildren. Today from the darkness of illiteracy, the light of education shines bright. We share in the sorrow as people weep and suffer in America today as we inaugurate this school. Those who have committed this evil act against the innocent, women and children, to create thousands of widows and orphans do not do so in the name of Islam. By the grace of Allah the Almighty may justice be served upon them. For this tragedy I humbly ask Mr. George and Dr. Greg Sahib for their forgiveness. All of you my brethren: Protect and embrace these two American brothers in our midst. Let no harm come to them. Share all you have to make their mission successful. These two Christian men have come halfway around the world to show our Muslim children the light of education. Why have we not been able to bring education to our children on our own? Fathers and parents, I implore you to dedicate your full effort and commitment to see that all your children are educated. Otherwise, they will merely graze like sheep in the field, at the mercy of nature and the world changing so terrifyingly around us. I request America to look into our hearts and see that the great majority of us are not terrorists, but good and simple people. Our land is stricken with poverty because we are without education. But today, another candle of knowledge has been lit. In the name of Allah the Almighty, may it light our way out of the darkness we find ourselves in." - Syed Abbas

Tea With the Taliban:
- After 9-11 the US media was just pumping stories out without checking facts etc. Offered Greg bribes to get into Afghanistan
- "I tried to talk about root causes of the conflict--the lack of education in Pakistan, and the rise of the Wahhabi madrassas and how that led to problems like terrorism. But that stuff hardly ever made it to print. They only wanted sound bites about top Taliban leaders so they could turn them into villains in the run up to war,"
- "Perhaps we should turn in Bin Laden to save Afghanistan. Mullah Omar thinks there is still time to talk our way out of war. Make no mistake, we will fight to the finish if we are attacked." - Mullah Zaeef
- Claims Mullah Omar called Bush for talks but he never called
- Mortenson recognized that the majority of Afghanistan were victims of 9-11 as well. We lumped all Muslims as terrorist.
- "When Greg wins the Nobel Peace Prize I hope the judges in Oslo point to that day. This guy Greg quietly doggedly heading back into a war zone to do battle with the real causes of terror is every bit as heroic as those firemen running up the stairs of the burning towers while everyone else was frantically trying to get out."
- The Taliban used commercial flights and satellite phones to call in US positions
- Greg got death threats and hatemail for preaching not to lump all of Islam with terrorists

Rumsfeld's Shoes:
- No one tracked Afghanistan's civilian casualties
- "I am old enough to remember this nonsense from World War II, when we turned on all the Japanese and interned them without good cause. These horrible hate letters are a mandate for you to get out and tell Americans what you know about Muslims. You represent the goodness and courage that America is all about. Get out, don't be afraid, and spread your message for peace. Make this your finest hour." - Patsy Collins in a letter to Greg
- Nov 13 2001 Kabul filled with music which the Taliban had banned as the Taliban fled the city. Girls came out of hiding to go to school.
- No border security from Afghanistan to Pakistan
- He told me that less than a quarter of the aid money president Bush had promised his country had actually arrived in Afghanistan. And of those insufficient funds, he said $680 million had been redirected to build runways and bulk up supply depots in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar for the invasion of Iraq everyone had expected would soon begin.
- "I meet so many people day in and day out who say theyre trying to do good and help people. But Greg is the real thing. He's walking the walk. And I'm his biggest fan. The sacrifices that he and his family have made are staggering. He represents the best of America. I just wanted to do what I could to see that his humanity had a chance to rub off on as many people as possible." - Rep. Mary Bono
- "I don't do what I am doing to fight terror. I do it because I care about kids. Fighting terror is maybe seventh or eighth on my list of priorities. But working over there I have learned a few things. Ive learned that terror doesnt happen because some group of people somewhere like Pakistan or Afghanistan simple decide to hate us. It happens because cchildren arent being offered a bright enough future that they have a reason to choose life over death."
- "They walked quickly most of them clutching laptops under their arms speeding towards their next task like missiles, like there wasnt time to look at me. And I remember thinking I was in the Army once, but this didnt have anything to do with the military I knew. This was a laptop Army." - Greg on the Pentagon
- "The worst thing we can do is what we're doing--ignoring the victims. To call them 'collateral damage' and not even try to count the numbers of the dead. Because to ignore them is to deny they ever existed, and there is no greater insult in the islamic world. For that we will never be forgiven."
- "Im no military expert and these figures might not be exactly right. But as best as I can tell, we've launched 114 tomahawk cruise missiles into Afghanistan so far. Now take the cost of one of those missiles tipped with a Raytheon guidance system, which I think is about $840,000. For that much money you could build dozens of schools that could provide tens of thousands over with a balanced nonextremist education over the course of a generation. Which one do you think will make us more secure."
- Greg was offered money to build schools from the US military
- "I realized my credibility i that part of the world depended on me not being associated with the American government, especially its military."
- Greg's integrity is pretty incredible turning down millions from the US government
- I cant believe how many people in DC he got to meet and how involved he was in the history of our country yet we have never heard of him until his book. I dont know if that says more about the power of books or the state of our media.

The Enemy is Ignorance:
- A girl plops down in front of Greg in a tribal council and asks for money now for medical tuition. She was educated in CAI schools and embodies all that Greg had hoped the girls would learn.
- "If we try to resolve terrorism with military might and nothing else then we will be no safer than we were before 9-11. If we truly want a legacy of peace for our children, we need to understand that this is a war that will ultimately be won with books, not with bombs."
- Story finally published in Parade magazine. Overwhelmed with letters Greg said he only got one negative one. Very diverse support and lots of vets
- "People like me are America's best friends in the region. Im a moderate muslim and educated man. But watching this even I could become a jihadi. How can Americans say they are making themselves safer? Your President Bush has done a wonderful job of uniting one billion muslims against America for the next 200 years." General Bashir Baz
- "Osama is not a product of Pakistan or Afghanistan. He is a creation of America. Thanks to America Osama is in every home. As a military man I know you can never fight and win against someone who can shoot at you once and then run off and hide while you have to remain eternally on guard. You have to attack the source of your enemy's strength. In America's case thats not Osama or Saddam or anyone else. The enemy is ignorance. The only way to defeat it is to build relationships with these people to draw them into the modern world with education and business. Otherwise the fight will go on forever." - General Baz
- Jahan the girl graduates and now wants to be a hospital exec
- "And now that I am already in Skardu I feel that anything is possible. I dont want to be just a health worker. I want to be such a woman that I can start a hospital and be an executive and look over all the health problems of all the women in Braldu. I want to become a very famous woman of this area. I want to be a superlady." She said daring anyone, any man, to tell her she couldn't.
Mortenson didnt laugh at all. Instead he beamed at the bold granddaughter of Hali Aji and imagined the contented look that would have been on the old nurmadhar's face if he had lived long enough to see this day, to see the seed they planted together bear such splendid fruit. 580 letters, twelve rams, and tens years of work was a small price to pay, Mortenson thought, for such a moment.

Stones Into Schools:
- Opium harvest spiked in 2003 from nonexistant to almost 4000 tons which was 2/3 of the worlds raw material for heroin. The funds were funneled back into the land to equip and recruit militias which made Karzais governement increasingly irrelevant.
- "We fought with Americans, here in these mountains, against the Russians. An though we heard many promises, they never returned to help us when the dying was done." Keep your promises!
- New fork in the road for Greg.

War Blogging?! A Glimpse Into Our Deployed Soldiers Lives

Imagine you are amidst a mortar attack. Shrapnel is flying all around you, your heart is beating out of your chest, all hell is breaking loose. How do you react? Blog about it?!? No that really wasn't the first thing that came to my mind either. But that is what the Air Force is doing as we speak. Obviously that example is a little dramatic but the military is deploying a couple military journalists into the field to vlog and blog their adventures to the world.

International Security Assistance Force Joint Command officials announced a new Web site Feb. 1 to support a public affairs project titled "30 Days Through Afghanistan."

The Web-based project kicks off Feb. 8 and aims to bring the people, the mission and the experiences of ISAF's 44 participating nations to a worldwide audience through the eyes of Tech. Sgts. Nathan Gallahan and Kenneth Raimondi.

You can read the full article here or check out the 30 Days Through Afghanistan website and watch a video here. This concept is really interesting I will be on the look out for content as it arises. I think that there is a dire need for the nation as a whole to better understand the nature of the military and what our soldiers go through during a time of war. How can we truly vote for elected leaders, who hold critical war stances, if we don’t even understand what their decisions mean for the 1% of our population who actually has to serve? Not to mention how those decisions effect the countless family and friends of our service members. Part of the problem is a general lack of understanding about the business of war fighting, but another part of the problem is a culture of secrecy by the government and our military around the nature of war. A close control of critical information is obviously warranted, however the general public has relatively little exposure to what a day in the life of a military member is really like overseas. How do I know? Because I am in the military and I have relatively little knowledge and media showing me what my forthcoming deployment will be like…..and I have first hand people to talk to. I think some of this secrecy might be attributed to our nation's history of wavering public support for conflict and the impact that has on our politicians reelections. Regardless most of our nation’s views on military life in a wartime situation are based more on Full Metal Jacket and Stripes than actual media and information making its way back to the states .

"The goal is to create a 30-day online conversation with people across the world," said Sergeant Gallahan. "We hope to raise an understanding of Afghanistan and the ISAF mission."

I think a project like this one is one to be paid attention to as it is not only relevant to military members and their families, but to everyone who benefits from the sacrifices of our troops.

Strategy, Afghanistan and Obama's Speech

I am going to list a few words and I want you to read them as fast as you can and tell me what they have in common. Afghanistan, Obama, Speech, Pakistan, Bush, War, 30,000 Troops, Timeline. Besides dominating the headlines alongside Tiger Woods, these words represent key elements of one of our country's great challenges; The Afghanistan Conflict. Not only is the situation complicated, it is extremely polarizing. A fact that the media and political pundits exploit and exaggerate at all costs, much to the detriment of our nation's unity and any political progress on the topic at large. That is why I love reading Andrew Sullivan. He has his views but tries to express them based purely on the facts as he sees them. There is minimal exaggeration and a common recognition of the opposing view, even if he strongly disagrees. If I had to boil it down I would say he is grounded in reality, not theatrics. Here is the post he wrote regarding President Obama's speech on our nation's way forward in Afghanistan as well as some excerpts and comments below.

I think this strategy is doomed. But then I think any strategy that does not pledge to colonize Afghanistan, pour trillions of dollars into it and stay for a century is doomed. So why do I end up this morning feeling rather similar to my colleague, Jim Fallows, who simply sighs: 'Well, I hope he's right"?

Here's why. The sanest option - leave now - would leave allies high and dry, prompt domestic cries of surrender, demoralize the military, break a clear campaign pledge, and signal to Pakistan that the Taliban is their problem now. Everything but the latter are worth avoiding.

This war is already eight years' old and will soon have lasted longer than Vietnam. Its rationale today is very different than what it was in 2001 - 2002. Al Qaeda is based in Pakistan, not Afghanistan. The US, thanks to Bush and the recession, is bankrupt and facing a long and brutal period of high unemployment and soon huge cuts in entitlements or big tax hikes.

Our enemy already knows that the US cannot sustain neo-imperial control of a vast inhospitable country on the other side of the planet for more than a decade. And if the US were to do so, it would be becoming the imperial power the neocons and the Islamists truly want. What Obama was saying last night is that he is determined to return America to normal, to unplug this vast attempt at global control in Muslim countries that Bush and Cheney unleashed. He is trying to unwind the empire, not expand it.

How best to unwind the empire? By giving McChrystal what he wants and giving him a couple of years to deliver tangible results. If McChrystal delivers, fantastic. I will do a ritual self-flagellation and bow down to the man with no body-fat and a close relationship with 33 Kagans of various generations and genders. If McChrystal does his best and we still get nowhere, Obama will have demonstrated - not argued, demonstrated - that withdrawal is the least worst option.

I possess many of the same feelings as Andrew Sullivan. One area where I digress from his view is with regards to strategy. I have read/heard many comments whether or not people agree with sending more troops. But one thing I have not heard addressed is that lack of detail regarding a new, or as I have said numerous times, the creation of a strategy to end our involvement in this war on a grand scale. I did like increased emphasis on Pakistan's involvement and responsibility as well as the actual mobilization of troops to combat the Taliban. Both are good signs in my view. However the lack of a legitimate and capable government coupled with a fuzzy strategy at best have me worried. One thing I will say is that the military leaders and members did not choose to go to Afghanistan. It is not their place to question the decisions of our elected officials when they are lawful orders. So our military leaders are requesting the troops and resources they feel are necessary to do the job they are told to do. In general I feel that we should listen to leaders on the ground, I would just feel a lot more comfortable if the strategy was so clearly defined that the average person on the street could give a brief overview of what it is. I worry because there are many military members who could not provide a brief overview of our strategy let alone the average American.

War Tax, Our National Debt, And The Illusive Terrorist

This is one of the few times I actually want more taxes! Read the full article on a proposed war tax here. The average American doesn’t recognize the immense cost of maintaining an expeditionary force overseas. I would rather have to fork out the extra money in taxes than continue to grow our astronomical national debt, the majority of which lies in the hands of the Chinese.

"There ain't going to be no money for nothing if we pour it all into Afghanistan," House Appropriations Chairman David Obey told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "If they ask for an increased troop commitment in Afghanistan, I am going to ask them to pay for it."

Obey, a Democrat from Wisconsin, made it clear that he is absolutely opposed to sending any more U.S. troops to Afghanistan and says if Obama decides to do that, he'll demand a new tax -- what he calls a "war surtax" -- to pay for it.

"On the merits, I think it is a mistake to deepen our involvement," Obey said. "But if we are going to do that, then at least we ought to pay for it. Because if we don't, if we don't pay for it, the cost of the Afghan war will wipe out every initiative we have to rebuild our own economy."

There was another article on MSN regarding the immense costs of borrowing that we as Americans are dealing with. Not only is it an immense cost now but it may get much worse in the near future.

“The government is on teaser rates,” said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group that advocates lower deficits. “We’re taking out a huge mortgage right now, but we won’t feel the pain until later.”

The United States government is financing its more than trillion-dollar-a-year borrowing with i.o.u.’s on terms that seem too good to be true.

But that happy situation, aided by ultralow interest rates, may not last much longer.

Treasury officials now face a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed.

The potential for rapidly escalating interest payouts is just one of the wrenching challenges facing the United States after decades of living beyond its means.

Even as Treasury officials are racing to lock in today’s low rates by exchanging short-term borrowings for long-term bonds, the government faces a payment shock similar to those that sent legions of overstretched homeowners into default on their mortgages.

With the national debt now topping $12 trillion, the White House estimates that the government’s tab for servicing the debt will exceed $700 billion a year in 2019, up from $202 billion this year, even if annual budget deficits shrink drastically. Other forecasters say the figure could be much higher.

I am always amazed at the propensity for government officials and political pundits to try and defy the laws of finance based on the premise that government spending is different than personal finance. I disagree. There are some obvious differences, however basic principles like the cost of capital, the power of compounding interest, and spending more than you make aren’t moot just because a sovereign government is doing the spending. That is why I think developing a clear “end state” or perhaps more accurately an “exit state” for Afghanistan is so important. Right now we are likely going to bolster troops in a war that to my knowledge has no clear goal other than to prevent the harboring of terrorists. That argument might be enough if the majority of the terrorists in the 9-11 attacks hadn’t masterminded in Europe. A more recent example is the Ft Hood tragedy. It is a new world out there with bolstering interconnectivity of those worldwide. And if we continue to treat these terrorists as if they are actors of a nation state we will continue to be behind the eight ball when it comes to combating them. Terrorist activity, as has been proven time and again, can arise from anywhere. It can cross any border into any nation and is more of a mental disposition than a national association. If we are going to continue financing a war without an end state in mind we may as well do it from our own pockets vice the interest bearing dollars of other nations.

The Afghanistan Mafia State

Consistent readers of BadskiBlog have likely picked up on my general skepticism of our elected officials and the claims that they make. However, do not mistake me for an anarchist. I love the country we live in and I believe government serves a very important role in maintaining its greatness. Although I am hesitant towards any government encroachment of the freedoms we enjoy as American’s I strongly believe that the good ol’ US of A does a pretty damn good job of protecting it’s citizens freedoms from the dangers of lawlessness, crime, and corruption. I found this article on Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai and his vow to clean his country of corruption.

It was no secret what the world wanted to hear from Hamid Karzai when Afghanistan’s president was sworn in for a second term on Thursday November 19th: a commitment to get tough on corruption. Visiting Kabul for the inauguration, Hillary Clinton, America’s secretary of state, said Mr Karzai had a “window of opportunity” to show tangible results. American officials say he has just six months to tackle what one calls “Afghanistan’s mafia state”.

In his inauguration speech, he said ministers in his administration must be “competent and just”. But heeding Western concerns about their behaviour does not come naturally to Mr Karzai. He has been in a combative mood since the West’s much-resented demand that he accept that his re-election was marred by massive vote-rigging. In a recent American television interview he batted back questions about corruption in his government with his oft-repeated line that foreign donors must clean their own act up and stop development funds from being wasted. Such wastage, however, is at least lawful, unlike the Afghan government’s practice of selling jobs to officials who then repay themselves through extortion. Nor is it akin to the impunity the well-connected enjoy.

We focus so much on the war fighter in our conflict in Afghanistan. We focus on our battle against the Taliban. I would argue that they are not our greatest challenge. If you watched the documentaries I recommended on a previous BadskiBlog post you would see that the Taliban are merely players in a much more complicated problem. In fact our, and I use the term loosely, “strategy” in Afghanistan is now engaging the people of Afghanistan in an effort to rebuild their nation and align them with US interests. We are tasking our war fighters to protect the local population, to get the local population to trust us, to get the locals to continue their daily life, and in theory to reject Islamic extremists that hide amongst them. However, this article illustrates a fundamental problem with this strategy. How are we supposed to empower a 19 year old army private to win over the local population when we are supporting a corrupt government that is seen by the people as completely inadequate in representing and protecting their rights? Karzai’s own half brother is said to be one of the main beneficiaries of the now flourishing drug trade and Karzai's own reelection was internationally exposed as a farce.

For some Americans, the crucial test of Mr Karzai’s seriousness in tackling corruption is his willingness to sack Ahmed Wali Karzai, his half-brother, who lords it over the south as head of Kandahar’s provincial council. Both he and his brother deny longstanding allegations that Ahmed Wali is involved in the drug trade. And parts of the foreign effort in Afghanistan also rely on Ahmed Wali, including allegedly the CIA (though he denies reports he is on the agency’s payroll). As one NATO official in Kabul put it, Ahmed Wali’s “ruthless use of patronage” has annoyed many people and possibly increased support for the insurgents. But it has also kept many other people on side. “Ahmed Wali is the only thing holding Kandahar together right now,” says the official, speaking of a city second only to Kabul in importance, and suggesting that in tackling this important symbol of perceived corruption it is not just Mr Karzai who has a conflict of interest.

Not to mention that the current US strategy does little to address Pakistan as a player in the Afghanistan scenario. I have been happy to see that Pakistan has become more involved by sending actual troops into areas inhabited by the Taliban, but only time will tell how serious they are in their efforts. I will be much happier if Pakistan acknowledges that a stable Afghanistan is good for Pakistan and carries out the actions to prove it.

Obama's War and The Fixer

Obama’s War. The title I imagine is very controversial to some, I know it piqued my interest since we have been at war for 8 years, the majority of which he was not Commander in Chief. Although I think that the title is more a realization that no matter what happened in the past the war is now in the hands of our Commander in Chief and therefore he is ultimately responsible to devise a strategy that ends the conflict. I must say I was pleasantly surprised that despite what many would consider a controversial title the documentary was objective, insightful, and very daring both in the footage obtained in harm’s way and daring via the questions asked of the true key players in Operation Enduring Freedom. Fellow classmate and blogger Cameron Schaefer provides some very well written and intelligent discussion on his blog, and recently I have adopted him as a pseudo information funnel regarding our nation’s war strategy (or lack thereof depending on your view). He highly recommended Obama’s War and I must thank him for doing so. The documentary coupled with my watching Charlie Wilson’s War last week have, sadly I must admit, greatly expanded my awareness of not only how we got into the crisis at hand, but the immense difficulties we face strategically moving forward. Below is the summary of the 55 minute masterpiece concocted by PBS. I like my adopted Afghanistan Guru friend highly recommend watching this show, especially if you are currently serving and will likely be headed over there.

In Obama's War, veteran correspondent Martin Smith travels across Afghanistan and Pakistan to see first-hand how the president's new strategy is taking shape, delivering vivid, on-the-ground reporting from this eight-year-old war's many fronts. Through interviews with top generals, diplomats and government officials, Smith also reports the internal debates over President Obama's grand attempt to combat terrorism at its roots.

"What we found on the ground was a huge exercise in nation building," says Smith. "The concept's become a bit of a dirty word, but that's what this is. We started with the goal of eliminating Al Qaeda, and now we've wound up with the immense task of re-engineering two nations."

The brunt of the work is falling on rank-and-file soldiers, and nowhere is it more difficult than in the dusty, unforgiving landscape of Helmand province, the Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, where FRONTLINE embedded with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. Since the Marines' arrival in July, Helmand has become the most lethal battlefield in Afghanistan. But FRONTLINE found the Marines trying to act as armed diplomats, attempting to build the necessary trust for badly needed economic development.

"It's trying to change the culture of the organization," Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, tells FRONTLINE of the administration's plan. "At the end of the day, our best counterinsurgents are going to be young sergeants who just have an ability to deal with people. We've got to give them the flexibility to make decisions."

Even as American soldiers struggle to make progress in Afghanistan village by village, equally vexing challenges remain across the border in Pakistan. "In Afghanistan we know what to do; we just don't know if we have the resources or the time available to do it," David Kilcullen, a leading counterinsurgency expert, tells FRONTLINE. "The problem in Pakistan is we're not really sure what to do."

When FRONTLINE confronts the Pakistani army about its reluctance to take out key Taliban leaders, the military's chief spokesman, Gen. Athar Abbas, argues that the accusations are misplaced. There is no truth, he claims, that insurgents stage attacks on American forces from the Pakistani side of the border. "They operate from Afghanistan. If somebody claims that everything is happening from this side of the border, I am sorry, this is misplaced, and we refute it."

Barred from sending troops across the border, the United States is left with few good options. No quick fix will solve Pakistan. "If we have a strategy in Pakistan," says George Packer, a staff writer at The New Yorker, "it's to build up the civilian government to the point where it can be a kind of counterbalance to the military and begin to reorient their own sense of their destiny. Is that even thinkable for a foreign power to do? Even as I say it, I think, why do we think we could even begin to accomplish that?"

CLICK HERE TO WATCH "OBAMA'S WAR"

Update: After I originally drafted this post I watch and HBO on demand documentary entitled "Fixer." A fixer is an individual who facilitates interaction between journalists and those they are out to capture on film. In this case the fixer was a twenty four year old Afghan named Ajmal. The documentary shows Ajmal and his American journalist counterpart interviewing Taliban members, corrupt Afghan elected officials, and terrified commoners. Between the candid glimpses of daily Afghan life and the candid real discussion of the fixer and journalist it is an incredibly powerful documentary for those interested in what is going on overseas. The documentary eventually shifts to tell how Ajmal along with an Italian journalist were captured by the Taliban. The Taliban (alleged by many including the makers of this documentary to be puppets of Pakistan) eventually negotiate a release with Karzai. While the Italian is celebrating his return Ajmal is never actually released and is eventually murdered by decapitation. The film shows Ajmal's father and his disgust for his government. He is appalled that Karzai would negotiate with terrorists to release a foreigner while they sit idly by while his son whose rights the government has sworn to protect are violated. The true value of the film, like Obama's War above, is the illustration of the difficult political interactions of all the players besides the Taliban. Ajmal in a very powerful scene in the film is lecturing his elder American journalist, who is supposed to be an expert on the conflict, that this is not a war against the Taliban. Ajmal states that it is an "international war." Pakistan, the US, and Afghanistan are deeply intertwined in every consequence of this conflict and to see it unfold with Ajmal's tale as a backdrop is truly incredible. I have included a trailer below.