IAVA's Todd Bowers in Afghanistan

Hey, Todd Bowers is one of the troops serving the whole veterans community via the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America and the Community of Veterans

He's also actively serving in Afghanistan right now.

Check out NPR: Marines Find Afghan Mission Is A Matter Of Trust

The village is the economic heart of Now Zad, where residents from around the district shop or sell goods. But they faced retribution if they were seen talking to the Marines. So the Marines went there to drive out the Taliban.

Even before the fighting in the town ended, Marine civil affairs teams fanned out to meet with the residents they could find.

"We found that the follow-on operations are sometimes way more critical than the actual kinetic aspect," says Marine Staff Sgt. Todd Bowers, who heads one of the teams. "We need to have good planning in order to understand who the key leaders are and ensure that we're giving them the capability to still have power over their people, but at the same time make sure that power is guided in the right direction."

Comments

[Neil in Chicago]

What Afghanistan needs, what the United States has a strategic interest in providing, and a moral imperative to provide, is RECONSTRUCTION.
Reconstruction is slower for flocks and orchards and irrigation systems than simply for fields, but that is the central necessity. It needs a serious military cordon to protect it, but the military is *adjunct* to the mission.

[Josh McHugh]

There's something very poetic about military lingo sometimes. "Kinetic" to describe the death-y parts is brilliant.