NEW: Chafee Travels to Afghanistan
David Pepin, GoLocalProv News Contibutor
NEW: Chafee Travels to Afghanistan
Until this morning, most of Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s interactions with the military have been ceremonial, be they distributing honors at the Statehouse or seeing off or welcoming home R.I. National Guard troops at Camp Fogarty.
Today, as a U.S. Army forward operating base in Methar Lam, Afghanistan, the atmosphere was a little more bracing. While greeting Rhode Island soldiers at the base, he said, the remains of a vehicle struck by an improvised explosive device (IED) lay in the background.
“Luckily, no one was injured,” he said yesterday afternoon from Kabul, where he is staying as part of a Department of Defense-sponsored tour with two fellow governors, Rick Snyder of Michigan and Dennis Daugaard of South Dakota. They will stay in Afghanistan through tomorrow after having visited soldiers in Kuwait Tuesday, and return to the U.S. Friday.
While acknowledging the situation in the wilds of Afghanistan is growing less stable, he said, “Morale is high among Rhode Island’s troops” after meeting a front-line unit led by Lt. Jeremy Aucoin.
“They’re proud to take on the challenge. As one soldier told me, ‘I haven’t been impressed by what I’ve seen from the Taliban so far,’ ” Chafee said.
Nevertheless, the governors, under tight military security while traveling by helicopter to forward operating bases, are greeting their home states’ soldiers at a time when increased Taliban activity is making the countryside dangerous, forcing forward units like the one Chafee visited to scale back operations.
“They’re pulling out of reconstruction because there have been too many IEDs. It’s getting too hazardous to be out fixing roads and drainage ditches,” he said of the Methar Lam area, adding that its valley featured many poppy fields.
Even with some plant life in the region, “Everything’s brown here,” Chafee said.
The soldiers Chafee talked with had all kinds of concerns, both about the war in front of them and what they’re missing back home.
“There was a lot of discussion about the effectiveness of the Afghani troops and whether they would be ready to take over by 2014,” he said, adding that instability he had learned about in Kabul on Sunday had been calmed somewhat by the time the governors arrived.
“A lot of them were asking me about fishing season (Rhode Island’s opened Saturday) and striper season. It brings the realization that they’re going to miss all that, since they’re not coming back until October. It’s not the same with Skype or e-mail,” Chafee said.
Chafee also said he visited a hospital in Kabul where many local Afghans are treated.
The quality that has struck him most about Afghanistan, he said, is the resiliency of a people that have been engaged in war since 2001, and for many years dating back through history.
“This is a society that has a lot of pride, but at the same time the march of civilization has left it behind. The Afghanis have an inner core and resilience,” he said.