The case has been made that the Iraq war (the second, or the third, depending on how you count it) is over and that we need a real paradigm shift in the way we discuss and argue about it. (There was an excellent article about this on Blackfive or somewhere, if I can find it, I’ll link it.) This article certainly supports that case.
DefenseLink News Article: Chicken Farming Gets Boost in Iraqi Town
FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq, May 8, 2008 – When soldiers of 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, began inspecting chicken coops in Hawr Rajab, Iraq, in December, they found munitions caches and bomb-making materials instead of poultry.Click photo for screen-resolution image
A young Iraqi unpacks chicks in Hawr Rajab, Iraq, May 6, 2009. Funds from the Baghdad-7 Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team allowed his family to refurbish its chicken coop. Deliveries of chicks and feed are intended to restore once-thriving chicken farms that were devastated by recent insurgent violence. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Turner, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.
Al-Qaida in Iraq fighters terrorized the residents of this community south of Baghdad, destroying buildings, stealing feed and killing livestock.Although peace has largely returned to the area, agriculture — the main source of employment for local residents — is struggling to recover. With help from soldiers of 6-8th Cavalry Regiment and the U.S. Department of State’s Baghdad-7 Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team, farmers here are hopeful that prosperity will return.
Members of the embedded PRT and 6-8th Cavalry Regiment soldiers distributed more than 13,000 egg-laying hen chicks to 10 poultry farmers in the Hawr Rajab area May 6 with the aim of providing a more sustainable income for the area’s largely family-based farms.
Mike Stevens, the embedded PRT’s agricultural advisor, estimated that the delivery created 40 new jobs. He credits soldiers with the program’s success so far.
