Posted on 11/12/2006 7:25:41 AM PST by Valin
TIZIMIZI, Mali, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Mayor Amadou Harouna Maiga was surprised, to say the least, when a group of U.S. soldiers turned up one day and offered to help build a school in his African village. But six months later, he is confident the Americans mean business and keen to explore what more they can do to help. "We have no shortage of problems -- health problems, water problems, agricultural problems," said Maiga as a four-man U.S. team returned this weekend to his village of mud-brick houses by the Niger River to deliver blackboards, slates, pencils, sharpeners and exercise books. "We think they (the Americans) are serious in their promises."
As he spoke inside a temporary classroom, built by villagers from branches and lined with reed matting, the sound of singing and clapping wafted in from dozens of women dancing outside in brilliantly coloured robes of pink, orange, blue and green to welcome the U.S. visitors. There is no mistaking the warmth of the greeting in this remote eastern region of Mali, a mainly Muslim nation and one of the world's poorest countries. It is, perhaps, one tiny victory in an uphill struggle by the U.S. military to win hearts and minds as it brings its global war on terrorism to remote parts of Africa on the fringe of the Sahara desert. The new school will mean that some 50 children in the village are spared a daily trek of some 3 km (2 miles) each way, in sweltering heat, to reach the only other nearby school in Ansongo. It will also take pressure off the Ansongo school, where in one of the classrooms 65 children are sharing a dozen benches and desks.
So how does building schools fit into a U.S. security strategy in Mali, a largely desert country of some 12 million people, bigger than South Africa and nearly twice the size of Texas? "If we can build the capacity of the government to provide services like schools, sanitation and public health, it's less likely for insurgents to gain a foothold in an area," says U.S. army captain Nathan Farris. He heads a four-man team of Civil Affairs soldiers, assisted by a U.S. military doctor, vet, dentist and nurse, which is working in Mali alongside, and under the command of, a U.S. special forces team training local soldiers in counter-terrorism. While the special forces teach the Malians to improve their marksmanship and tactics, the humanitarian team is visiting local villages like Tizimizi, offering help to build schools and clinics and repair broken-down wells.
DELICATE RELATIONSHIPS
Mali is one of nine West and North African countries which have signed up to the U.S. military's Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership, part of a strategy to prevent al Qaeda from establishing bases in the region in the same way it operated in the 1990s from Sudan and Afghanistan. Critics of the United States say it has exaggerated the threat in order to build up its security presence in Africa, partly because of its growing interest in West African oil as an alternative to supplies from the volatile Middle East.
Some are concerned that even pure humanitarian projects like digging wells risk interfering with delicate local relationships that often rest on factors like access to water supplies. Sometimes the local people are nervous, as Farris found out early on when he visited a Malian school. "One of the first questions I got was: were we here to conquer Mali or to help them?" But he added: "People are very receptive to our presence, once we explain we're here at the invitation of their government ... they're happy we're here to help out and help their government out."
On a visit to another village, Tacharane, Farris and his team agree to come back on Monday and treat 150 children with vitamins and medicine to kill off tapeworms. The chief seems pleased and says he will spread the word at a feast to celebrate the wedding of his youngest daughter. But an unannounced trip to nearby Tabango is less successful. The chief is away and a nervous-looking group of women ask why the Americans want to see him and why they didn't make an appointment.
Much of the success may depend on how the Americans manage the expectations of local people and whether they deliver on their promises. "Sometimes things take a long time to get going," Farris explained to the mayor of Tizimizi, saying the school project had been submitted to the U.S. embassy and was still under review.
Then they sell the blackboards to get bigger guns.
Missions like this get little publicity (especially before the election, since this type of report doesn't lend itself to Bush-bashing).
But they seem to be an important part of staying engaged in the third world, and therefore making it harder for terrorist to move around freely.
The possibilities are endless.
The headline writer isn't saying that the local populace is swapping weapons in exchange for school supplies.
I'm in an Army Civil Affairs unit.
Thank you!
Missions like this get little publicity
(For what it's worth) I pay attention to it.
Hearts and Minds...Hearts and Minds. That's a large part of this war.
Yeah, something like that.
This is what Kaplan, Imperial Grunts is about. These teams have their ears to the ground.
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