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    Afghanistan: Lashkar Gah - Home of the Warriors Part II
    Afghanistan: Lashkar Gah - Home of the Warriors Part I
    Ebook series2 titles

    Afghanistan: Lashkar Gah - Home of the Warriors Series

    By Leonard H. Le Blanc III

    ()

    About this series

    Second and final part of this personal memoir of a year in Afghanistan. From 2007 to 2008 a highly experienced American served as an International Adviser to a small Afghan-led Counter-Narcotics Advisory Team in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province southwestern Afghanistan. Helmand Province was, and still is, the scene of half the world's opium poppy production and ground center zero of a raging Taliban-fueled insurgency. It is an intimate portrait of the activities to stem these twin scourges.

    The adviser fully expected to confront the difficulties of being at the center of heavy fighting led by al-Qaeda and the Taliban with the attendant rockets attacks, mortar rounds, suicide bombers and heavy cross-fire, totally corrupt Afghan police and government officials and other support and supply problems being out on the 'cutting edge'.

    But what he found were the most difficult problems, and what dragged all his efforts to a grinding halt, was the total venality, sheer incompetence and corruption of certain US Embassy officials in Kabul, the double-dealing, back-stabbing and mismanagement of certain US Agency for International Development (USAID) officials and the graft, sycophant fawning and illegal gift-giving of his fellow advisers in an effort to wreck the whole project that was the most eye-opening and unexpected. It is a microcosm of why U.S. efforts failed in Afghanistan - the damage was all self-inflicted.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherProglen
    Release dateAug 8, 2013
    Afghanistan: Lashkar Gah - Home of the Warriors Part II
    Afghanistan: Lashkar Gah - Home of the Warriors Part I

    Titles in the series (2)

    • 1

      Afghanistan: Lashkar Gah - Home of the Warriors Part I
      Afghanistan: Lashkar Gah - Home of the Warriors Part I

      Afghanistan: Lashkar Gah - Home of the Warriors Part I

      Leonard H. Le Blanc III
      0 ratings
      0 ratings

      From 2007 to 2008 a highly experienced American served as an International Advisor to a small Afghan-led Counter-Narcotics Advisory Team in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province southwestern Afghanistan. Helmand Province was, and still is, the scene of half the world's opium poppy production and ground center zero of a raging Taliban-fueled insurgency. It is an intimate portrait of the activities to stem these twin scourges. The advisor fully expected to confront the difficulties of being at the center of heavy fighting led by al-Qaeda and the Taliban with the attendant rockets attacks, mortar rounds, suicide bombers and heavy cross-fire, totally corrupt Afghan police and government officials and other support and supply problems being out on the 'cutting edge'. But what he found were the most difficult problems, and what dragged all his efforts to a grinding halt, was the total venality, sheer incompetence and corruption of certain US Embassy officials in Kabul, the double-dealing, back-stabbing and mismanagement of certain US Agency for International Development (USAID) officials and the graft, sycophant fawning and illegal gift-giving of his fellow advisors in an effort to wreck the whole project that was the most eye-opening and unexpected. It is a microcosm of why U.S. efforts failed in Afghanistan - the damage was all self-inflicted.

      From 2007 to 2008 a highly experienced American served as an International Advisor to a small Afghan-led Counter-Narcotics Advisory Team in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province southwestern Afghanistan. Helmand Province was, and still is, the scene of half the world's opium poppy production and ground center zero of a raging Taliban-fueled insurgency. It is an intimate portrait of the activities to stem these twin scourges. The advisor fully expected to confront the difficulties of being at the center of heavy fighting led by al-Qaeda and the Taliban with the attendant rockets attacks, mortar rounds, suicide bombers and heavy cross-fire, totally corrupt Afghan police and government officials and other support and supply problems being out on the 'cutting edge'. But what he found were the most difficult problems, and what dragged all his efforts to a grinding halt, was the total venality, sheer incompetence and corruption of certain US Embassy officials in Kabul, the double-dealing, back-stabbing and mismanagement of certain US Agency for International Development (USAID) officials and the graft, sycophant fawning and illegal gift-giving of his fellow advisors in an effort to wreck the whole project that was the most eye-opening and unexpected. It is a microcosm of why U.S. efforts failed in Afghanistan - the damage was all self-inflicted.

    • 2

      Afghanistan: Lashkar Gah - Home of the Warriors Part II
      Afghanistan: Lashkar Gah - Home of the Warriors Part II

      Afghanistan: Lashkar Gah - Home of the Warriors Part II

      Leonard H. Le Blanc III
      0 ratings
      0 ratings

      Second and final part of this personal memoir of a year in Afghanistan. From 2007 to 2008 a highly experienced American served as an International Adviser to a small Afghan-led Counter-Narcotics Advisory Team in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province southwestern Afghanistan. Helmand Province was, and still is, the scene of half the world's opium poppy production and ground center zero of a raging Taliban-fueled insurgency. It is an intimate portrait of the activities to stem these twin scourges. The adviser fully expected to confront the difficulties of being at the center of heavy fighting led by al-Qaeda and the Taliban with the attendant rockets attacks, mortar rounds, suicide bombers and heavy cross-fire, totally corrupt Afghan police and government officials and other support and supply problems being out on the 'cutting edge'. But what he found were the most difficult problems, and what dragged all his efforts to a grinding halt, was the total venality, sheer incompetence and corruption of certain US Embassy officials in Kabul, the double-dealing, back-stabbing and mismanagement of certain US Agency for International Development (USAID) officials and the graft, sycophant fawning and illegal gift-giving of his fellow advisers in an effort to wreck the whole project that was the most eye-opening and unexpected. It is a microcosm of why U.S. efforts failed in Afghanistan - the damage was all self-inflicted.

      Second and final part of this personal memoir of a year in Afghanistan. From 2007 to 2008 a highly experienced American served as an International Adviser to a small Afghan-led Counter-Narcotics Advisory Team in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province southwestern Afghanistan. Helmand Province was, and still is, the scene of half the world's opium poppy production and ground center zero of a raging Taliban-fueled insurgency. It is an intimate portrait of the activities to stem these twin scourges. The adviser fully expected to confront the difficulties of being at the center of heavy fighting led by al-Qaeda and the Taliban with the attendant rockets attacks, mortar rounds, suicide bombers and heavy cross-fire, totally corrupt Afghan police and government officials and other support and supply problems being out on the 'cutting edge'. But what he found were the most difficult problems, and what dragged all his efforts to a grinding halt, was the total venality, sheer incompetence and corruption of certain US Embassy officials in Kabul, the double-dealing, back-stabbing and mismanagement of certain US Agency for International Development (USAID) officials and the graft, sycophant fawning and illegal gift-giving of his fellow advisers in an effort to wreck the whole project that was the most eye-opening and unexpected. It is a microcosm of why U.S. efforts failed in Afghanistan - the damage was all self-inflicted.

    Author

    Leonard H. Le Blanc III

    Leonard H. Le Blanc III was born in San Antonio, TX in 1951. He grew up in Danbury, CT. He graduated from Kansas State University with a BS in Geography and two MA degrees from Webster University in Management and International Relations. Leonard also graduated from the University of the State of New York (now Regents College) with a BA in History and from Charter Oak State College with a BS in Individualized Studies (English, History and Psychology). Leonard honorably served in the US Air Force and US Navy. He has lived and worked overseas in military and civilian jobs for over 21 years in Nigeria, Japan, Thailand, Kuwait, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Leonard has resided in Bangkok, Thailand since 1991 when he is not working on overseas defense contracts. He has also been a freelance reporter for THE BANGKOK POST and a volunteer advisor on Peace and Human Security issues in South and Southeast Asia plus an editor and proofreader for UNESCO Regional HQ-Bangkok. He is married to the former Lana Adnan Issa al-Shareeda of Basra, Iraq and they have two children, Lujane Jasmin (L. J.) and 'Joseph' Leonard (J. L.).

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