Soldiers take over where Afghan gov't fears to go

[Alamuti Lotus]

Source: AP

The American soldiers climb over walls, jump ditches and scan the dirt for trip wires in an hourlong hike, all to meet with one man: the new head of a mosque in a tiny village in a southern Afghan river valley. They hope to persuade him to support the Afghan government.
They have a tough sell. The mullah, Bas Mohammad, says residents in Charbagh never see government representatives — not doctors, teachers or agriculture workers — even though the village sits on the edge of the south's largest city, Kandahar.
In areas like these, where government authorities rarely venture, patrolling NATO troops are not just a security force: They are also envoys of the Afghan government.
The Taliban clearly have a presence in Charbagh. The road between the village and an American outpost is so littered with homemade bombs that soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment avoid it altogether, making what should be a 300-yard (-meter) walk last an hour. Mohammad's predecessor was run off by the militants, and the new mullah, a month into his job, has already been warned to leave.

Asked about the meetings of elders organized in the area by the government and NATO forces, Mohammad says they're not worth attending.
"It's all corrupt — just a bunch of people trying to get money, trying to make sure their people get government contracts," he says.

A young boy who's been listening in on the conversation from a couple feet away looks at the U.S. soldiers and says "Taliban" while giving a thumbs-up sign. Then he turns his thumb down toward the ground and says "American."
An Afghan soldier hands the boy a bottle of water. The boy pours it out on the ground without taking a sip.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100712/ap_on_re_as/as_afghan_patrol_diplomacy

[saigon68]

1. Nice

</sarcasm>

patrolling NATO troops are not just a security force: They are also envoys of the Afghan government.(Appointed Thugs strip mining the wealth)