Konyok; Helping Afghans develop their natural resources would be the easiest way to modernize the country and help them to provide for themselves. I’ve heard accounts of more significant natural gas than what you present, but be that as it may, there are significant energy reserves as well as mineral wealth.

You are absolutely correct about the Afghans missing a generation of nearly every skill other than those you noted. I’ve tried to explain it as if someone killed every single person who worked for your state’s highway department and then abolished the department for fifteen years and let the roads go to hell… then hired people to run the highway department. The whole place is like that.

That’s what the mentorship is for. Someone above denigrated NGO’s, but often the NGO’s are teaching the skills that make a real difference in people’s lives.

All the wells in the provinces were drilled by NGO’s. NGO’s make a big difference. We thought the UN folks were a pain, but the NGO’s were often the only ones helping to provide an improvement in life as the balance swung back and forth in a local community.

Sometimes the scale swung with the rising and setting of the sun.

Drink Georgian wine. For every Afghan oil or gas well, there is a stake in the heart of the Taliban. For every small industry that trains a new employee, there is a thorn in the side of the Taliban. You cannot crush the Taliban to death in one fell swoop, but you can kill it with a thousand cuts. It is long, slow, by-increments work that Americans do not stomach well.

We are the big fat kid with ADD. We have really heavy hands, are easily winded, and we have a short attention span. We also expect our fists to solve all of our problems, even when holding a pen or a slide rule would be more effective.