http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-847630.mp3
Kansas City, Mo. – The current U.S. military surge in Afghanistan is "on track" in the mind of Missouri Senator Christopher Bond. But the G.O.P. lawmaker considers it only a partial strategy.
Missouri's senior senator is careful to avoid making parallels with military actions in Iraq. He says the senate intelligence committee, of which he is a member, sent its recommendations to the Obama administration early this year.
Senator Bond says those points seem to be part of the overall military approach in Afghanistan. In his words, "We need an Afghan face, the Afghan army needs to lead the way. What the Missouri National Guard is doing is recognized by everybody as the wave of the future."
Senator Bond says the national guard has been filling a gap left when the US Agency for International Development couldn't or didn't sent agricultural help to the embattled country. Forty eight guards men and women with agricultural backgrounds moved in to teach modern farming methods, converting from poppy growing to vegetables. The senator says, where the opium trade held sway, now there is commercially grown broccoli.