My brother served in Afghanistan. His job was to help the locals plant wheat instead of poppy. To do so, the farmers need to know they are safe from taliban, and can get money to feed their families from sales of wheat. My brother installed a large program there and was highly commended for it. Incidentally, he worked with a civlian contracter crew to do so. The woman who ran the civilian side (not Afghanees but US and UK) were paid 200 plus GBP per year and were totally rubbish. As he said, it's not in their interest to get anything done in a hurry, as they are raking in good money. The woman was advised to get some kind of nitrate fertiliser for the fields, ordered bags and bags of it - turned out to be the kind of nitrate used for roadside bombs, and my brother had to get it all disposed of before the taliban could get hold if it. The woman was utterly incompetent.
