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Military Finds an Unlikely Adviser in School-Building Humanitarian

Wall Street Journal Original article ›

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Greg Mortenson runs 78 schools in remote poor areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan on a budget of $2.8 millioon he raises through small donations to his foundation, the Central Asia Institute. The Pentagon is listening to Mortenson and he has met privately with Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. THe military has specially sought him out. And General Petraeus has read his book Three Cups of Tea and passed it on to his staff for reading. He also has been asked to speak with senior officers of the Special Operations Command. Greg Mortenson believes getting amoderate education for these children is the best way to prevent the spread of Islamic extremism. In addition to the 78 schools he also runs 48 other schools in refugee camps in the region and 28,000 children in the 2 countries attend Mortenson's schools. In atalk to the Pentagon uniformed officers in 2002 he told them that the $840,000 spent on each of the Tomahawk cruise missiles fired into Afghanistan could have been used to build dozens of schools. He asked them which would you think will make us more secure?

Creating a new model for fighting the war against religious extremism in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

05/10/2006

The new model is to make economic development akey part of every effort, and provide security for people to lead normal lives.

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The other human face of Afghanistan and Pakistan that Admiral Mullen and young officers are paying attention to.

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The book Three Cups of Tea and the story of a humanitarian running 78 schools in the remote poor mountainous areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan is drawing the attention of younger officers and the commanders. That General Petraeus has read the book and passed it onto his staff. The story of the Red Cross Center for prosthetic legs in Afghanistan, and the reverence its Italian doctor inspires among ordinary Afghans. Defense Secretary Gates also sees this in his interview with Charlie Rose on PBS Dec 17, 2008, where he sees the Islamis extremist challenge in adifferent light, as afailure of strategic communications with the US neglecting AID, State Dept and other ways of communicating to developing countries what the US stands for, and sees a lot of possibilities if this is met creatively. He also does not see the Islamic extremism as achallenge in the way the Cold War was.

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Military Finds an Unlikely Adviser in School-Building Humanitarian

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