At the last hearings, everyone announced (while I cringed) that the US was no longer involved in building schools and the like. The Iraqis are supposed to be paying. (As you know, the Pakistani government has been notoriously corrupt in funding hundreds, if not thousands, of 'paper schools').
It made this picture of our non-involvement involvement leap out. If there is some type of involvement, this ought to be it, I think. Lasting memorials to the US's presence are important 'physical memories', especially if they are good ones! Of course, Rumsfeld didn't want to pay for much construction on US dime at all... another failure in his GOP-ideology conception of the GWOT, I guess.
Anyway, whatever the case, they should get their story straight in Washington.
Details:
On April 21st members of the PRT traveled for the first time via military convoy ... deep into the province to perform two ribbon-cutting ceremonies marking the completion of local civic engagement projects. The 82nd Airborne will assume “strategic overwatch” or backing up of local Iraqi security forces for Muthanna province on May 23rd. The PRT hopes to create an atmosphere of trust and respect with the local Iraqis as the 82nd is introduced gradually to the province.
According to PRT Team Leader Paul O’Friel, “When local Iraqis see that the entirety of the American presence in Muthanna -- civilian and military alike -- is working to improve their lives through new roads and schools, medical care for the most rural communities, and innovative support in the agricultural sector, then the province will be a safer place
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