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OUR OPINION: Double duty in Afghanistan

By The News Tribune

Published: Friday, September 4, 2009 1:38 PM CDT

U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan are winning the war -- the war against drugs.

The soldiers are members of the Missouri National Guard's Agri-Business Development Team (ADT).

The team's mission is to work with the Afghan people to improve crop and livestock production as an alternative to growing poppies, used in the production of opium.

A deployment ceremony Thursday in Jefferson City nearly dovetailed with Wednesday's UN report that Afghanistan's opium production fell 10 percent last year.

The soldiers, as well as civilians supporting their efforts, deserve to be encouraged by the UN's Afghan Opium Survey, which revealed "the bottom is starting to fall out" of the country's opium production.

Members of the ADT embody the popular quote: "If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; but if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime."

The soldiers are teaching Afghanis about crop production and marketing, water and irrigation techniques, pest management, food storage and other techniques.

Assisting them are civilian agriculture experts connected with Lincoln University, the University of Missouri-Columbia, Missouri Farm Bureau and other institutions.

U.S. military and agriculture officials agree the techniques in Afghanistan are primitive and modifications are necessary to conform with skill level as well as the country's topography.

Missouri played a leadership role in this effort. Since deploying its first ADT team, 10 other states have followed our example.

The U.S. military building in Afghanistan has created some dissension, but no one can quarrel with the virtues of helping the Afghan people.

The dual benefits of ADT efforts are curbing the U.S., and worldwide, opium market and helping the Afghan people attain independence, particularly from the iron-fisted rule of the Taliban.


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