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Speaker gives civilian perspective on Iraq, Afghanistan
Post war futures of Iraq and Afghanistan are very different, said a Nevada man who has spent time in both countries.
Sam Foursha spent 25 years in the U.S. Navy and retired with the rank of captain in 1997. Instead of taking retirement leisurely, Foursha launched onto a career with the U.S. State Department in a Provincial Reconstruction Team to improve local infrastructure and government, first in Iraq then in Afghanistan.
He was a senior advisor for the State Department from 2006 to 2010.
Foursha spoke about his experience in Iraq and Afghanistan on Monday at a meeting of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees.
Foursha compared and contrasted Iraq and Afghanistan in terms of history and geography.
"Iraq is located basically between the Tigris and Euphrates river, a place known as Mesopotamia and the cradle of civilization. Places there date back thousands of years ago," Foursha said. "Afghanistan is located on what was known as the Silk Road, the primary trading route to China. It's also known as the graveyard of empires."
Foursha gave a civilian perspective of trying to rebuild the two countries.
"We had plenty of money, that was never an issue," he said. "The requirements to bid and oversee jobs were very difficult. To leave the base was a huge ordeal. It was extremely austere and difficult place to do business."
When asked if he thought there would ever be peace in Afghanistan, Foursha said he believes it will be very difficult for the country to move on.
"Afghanistan is a place where the whole generation has never known anything but war," he said. "They have no resources; they have no infrastructure."
He was a bit more optimistic about Iraq.
"Iraq has oil, and I think they will turn things around" Foursha said. "They still have a lot of problems between the Sunni and Shia, and there's going to be a lot more internal fighting."
He explained in 2006 he was assigned to Anbar province, which was named "bloody Anbar" because of the violence.
"There was one road -- Michigan Avenue --that ran two miles into the government center," he said. "That was the most dangerous two-mile stretch in the world. We'd line these armored cars up and take off. There was a four lane stretch, and we were on both sides of that road going 80 mph. We jump out and run into the building because there were all these snipers," he said.
From Anbar, he transferred to the Bali Province in southern Iraq, near the ruins of Babylon.
"We had a number of projects that were easier to manage than in Anbar," he noted. "We built roads, schools and hospitals. We had much better oversight, though corruption continued to be a big problem."
Eventually, Foursha transferred to the Kandahar province in Afghanistan.
"You think of the Afghan people as being dark hair, dark eyes and dark skin," he said. "There's a province in northern Afghanistan where the people are blue eyed and have blonde hair."
He further explained the difficulty in communicating with people who speak Poshto or Dari, rather than the more common Arabic, and can't read.
Still, he managed to set up a twin-city partnership between Kansas City, Mo., and Kandahar City.
"Both cities were excited about it," he said. "The mayor was supposed to come back with me when I left. It ended up he couldn't go because the deputy mayor had been assassinated about a month before, and about two months later, he was assassinated."
Foursha said he regretted how little the reconstruction teams could accomplish.
"We go in these places with the very best of intentions. We want to help these people," he said. "We've got money to do it. We could see so much that needed to be done, and we tried to do it."