Farmers Guard in Afghanistan + Cyberspace Defense by DoD
“They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” That verse from the bible is being put into affect in Afghanistan by Coalition forces and local Afghan farmers. Next Spring in the country, two agri-business development teams are being deployed. Basically, they will be National Guard soldiers with experience and expertise in farming for food and profit. A group from Texas is already in place in Afghanistan.
“The focus of all we do is the Afghan people, and our intent in everything we do is to separate the people physically and psychologically from the enemy,” said Army Col. John P. Johnson, commander of Combined Task Force Currahee. The unit is built around the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Ky. “Teams will assist the farmers to build entire agricultural systems and allow them to take full advantage of all the agricultural potential resident here.”
Each of the agri-business development teams are made up of around 80 Guardsmen. The task force they’ll operate under has responsibility for 2.3 million people in Wardak, Logar, Paktia, Khowst and Paktika provinces in Regional Command East. The vast majority of the people in this region are farmers or herders. Agricultural expertise will help them improve their quality of life.
“We cannot succeed here with military power alone,” Johnson said. “It is critical to follow military power with rebuilding and construction funds.We’re really excited about getting these two agri-business development teams in our area of operations.”
November 21-22, 2008 - Afghanistan
Western Afghanistan
In operations in Farah province’s Dowlatabad village, Afghan Army Commandos and Coalition forces were fired on by militants. Around 90 civilians, including 30 children, were protected during the attack. At the end of the firefight four militants were dead with the rest run off. After the fight, Coalition troops found a functioning bomb in a local Mosque. While exploding it, the mosque suffered some exterior damage. Coalition forces paid local elders from the village for the damage.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan:
Remember Afghanistan:
Sgt. Stryker doesn’t think Afghanistan gets as much coverage as it should. There are still a lot of brave men and women in that country fighting for the freedom of Afghanistan. As we near Thanksgiving 2008, please don’t forget those we have in our military around the world.
Cyberspace Defense and the DoD:
In virtual realms, the US Department of Defense is taking cyberwarfare seriously.
“We are aware of a global virus for which there are some public alerts, and we’ve seen some of these on our networks, and we are taking steps to identify and mitigate the virus,” Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said. “We do aggressively monitor our networks for intrusions and take adequate steps to protect them.”
According to Pentagon officials, the DoD’s global information grid includes more than 15,000 networks and about 7 million information technology devices. That’s a lot of virtual real estate to protect.
Bryan Whitman:
“It’s the responsibility of every user to help protect the network. This is something that requires us to have constant vigilance.
The threat comes from a variety of sources. It includes everything from recreational hackers to the self-styled cyber-vigilantes. It also emanates from various groups with nationalistic or ideological agendas, as well as transnational actors or transnational states.
This is not a Defense Department issue. It’s not even a government issue. It is an international issue – a world issue. Anyone who uses computers and is on a network is susceptible.”
While the military is known for making the real world safe, they also have themselves firmly planted in the virtual online world, protecting our freedoms.
