Top US military officer gets earful from Afghans

[bigtree]

Mar 30, 2010



MARJAH, Afghanistan, March 30 (Reuters) - From the litany of requests made to Mike Mullen on Tuesday -- from asphalt for roads to fertiliser for fields -- one might think he was a visiting aid worker, not the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"We want educational centres ... There is no good hospital ... We want all these roads to be paved," a man with a long black beard told Mullen, the top U.S. military officer, at a "shura", or tribal meeting in the heart of Afghanistan's Helmand province . . .

Mullen, whose helicopter landed in Marjah in a small wheat field surrounded by larger poppy crops nearing harvest time, said the villagers were "eager to make their desires known" but complaints were "a very critical part of the process."

Propped up on pillows, atop rugs, Mullen's response sounded like a line from the counter-insurgency handbook.

"I fully understand your concerns. They clearly focus on what are very common needs. And I don't come here today with any magic formula," Mullen said.

"God willing, we'll be able to deliver this capability and service as soon as possible. If it could be done overnight, we'd do that. It's going to take some time," he added.



read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKSGE62T0GC._CH_.2420

[saigon68]

1. "God willing, we'll be able to deliver this capability and service as soon as possible.

Look around the US sporty

See the homeless see the starving

What an ass clown

[formercia]

2. Get the Sea Bees in there to do the job.

Fuck those crooked contractors. This is cheap medicine for a big problem.

[Winterblues]

3. If it could be done overnight, we'd do that. It's going to take some time," he added.

It has only been nine years so give us a break. Everyone should know how long it takes to pave a road...:shrug: