RED CROSS [CONTINUED FROM PAGE 61] CHANGE [CONTINUED FROM PAGE 53] proceeded to expand its control
throughout Afghanistan.”
U.S. military work together to ensure a path toward becoming a stateless Osama bin Laden arrived on the
a timely relay of urgent information nation.” Unfortunately, as Guittierre scene in 1996, the same year the Tali-
to servicemembers deployed world- says, “When you have stateless soci- ban gained control of Kabul.
wide. Whether a servicemember is eties, things are done which are not Like many of the men who fol-
aboard a ship in the Mediterranean normally done in state-ruled societies, lowed him, Omar had only a rudi-
Sea or at Fort Bragg, N.C., for annual or at least state-infl uenced societies” mentary education and a limited
reserve component training, the Red — such as the widespread cultivation world view. “Many Taliban had been
Cross will fi nd him or her. Red Cross- and processing of opium poppies. educated in madrassas in Pakistan
verifi ed information also assists COs Complicated regional relationships and were largely from rural south-
in making emergency-leave decisions. and international politics also fueled ern Pashtun backgrounds,” the Bu-
In military and veterans’ hospitals, the development of the narcotics reau of South and Central Asian
Red Cross volunteers — including trade. The Soviet withdrawal in 1989 Affairs explains. What Omar lacked
doctors, nurses, and nonmedical per- created a power vacuum. The Bureau in intellectual capital he made up
sonnel — help with administrative of South and Central Asian Affairs for in his ability to channel funds
support, library services, clinical sup- reports that as fi ghting between rival from the drug trade toward bin Lad-
port, and physical and occupational factions escalated into civil war, “The en’s objectives; madrassas were
therapy. At Walter Reed Army Medical country sank even further into anar- built, terrorists were trained, and
Center, Washington, D.C., according to chy” and “narcotraffi ckers” sunk their weapons were purchased.
Brown, “patients who have lost limbs roots deeper into the country’s soil. “It’s not the fi rst time we’ve seen
often need ‘breakaway’ pants that will According to the State Department, this phenomenon,” Douglas says of
fi t over a prosthetic. These can be do- “Throughout this period, the opium the link between opium and insur-
nated … and provided directly to the poppy-narco business continued to gency. “Although national context
patients by Red Cross volunteers.” grow. Drug cartels with tentacles from one country to another is quite
Just as military strategy has been stretching across the map from Mos- different, we still know that in the
altered to fi t changing operational cow and Marseilles, France, to Kiev, past, drug-traffi cking organizations
requirements, Red Cross assistance Ukraine; Istanbul, Turkey; and Teh- and terrorist organizations have
to military families has changed to ran, Iran, tightened their grip on the teamed up. Colombia is a good ex-
accommodate the stresses of 21st- countryside and the economy.” ample,” he says. “Colombia has
century warfare and the shift toward nothing in common with Afghani-
increased reliance on reserve compo- From bad to worse stan, but we saw how the FARC
nent troops. Not only are reservists Throughout the 1990s, Guittierre [Revolutionary Armed Forces of
uprooted from civilian occupations says, “We have this whole period in Colombia] got a taste of drug money,
when they deploy, but active and Afghanistan ... in which things are and while at one time the FARC
reserve personnel alike often leave getting worse and worse — by the might have considered itself a social
behind families that are unprepared day, by the month, by the year — be- revolutionary organization, right
to deal with the many issues raised cause of the lack of stability.” Not now it’s a drug gang.”
by deployment. Red Cross chapters only were opium-poppy products
across the country, such as the Tri- being cultivated, produced, and ex- Partners in progress
angle Area Chapter of the American ported, but terrorist training camps “The Afghan government also under-
Red Cross in Raleigh, N.C., conduct were being developed. stands the close relationship between
family preparedness academies in It was during this period that a illegal narcotics and the Taliban in-
conjunction with unit departures for small band of men led by Mullah surgency and terrorist operations,”
overseas deployment. In the case of Mohammed Omar, a former muja- Mathias says. In 2005, the country
troops heading to Afghanistan, Iraq, hedeen, took up arms against a cor- began implementing a series of coun-
or Kuwait, this occurs after comple- rupt local administrator in Kandahar. ternarcotics programs that embraced
tion of desert training at the National They came to be known as the Taliban institutional capacity-building, law
Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif. and, according to the Bureau of South enforcement and interdiction, de-
“During the pre-deployment phase and Central Asian Affairs, “developed mand reduction, criminal justice re-
of mobilization, family members may enough strength to capture the city of form, public education, regional
not fully com- [CONTINUES ON PAGE 73] Kandahar from a local warlord and cooperation, [CONTINUES ON PAGE 75]
M AY 2 0 0 9 M I L I T A R Y O F F I C E R 6 9
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