New director of MCAS public affairs spent 13 months in Afghanistan

Capt. Staci Reidinger says the 13-month tour of duty in Afghanistan she returned from earlier this year has provided her with an unique insight about the war-torn country's struggle toward establishing stability, security and peace.

Reidinger, who recently taken over as director of public affairs at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, served in Afghanistan from January 2009 to February 2010 as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

“It was like a Rubik's Cube, in that every time you twist it seems like it grows another block that is another color. I can see how people can view it as just an impossible mission, but truly the mission needs to be an Afghan mission, not a U.S. mission.”

The ISAF's main role is to assist the Afghan government in the establishment of a secure and stable environment. In doing so, ISAF forces are conducting security and stability operations throughout the country together with the Afghan National Security Forces.

ISAF forces are also directly involved in the training of the Afghan National Army and Afghan security forces in order to gradually hand over responsibility for securing their county to the Afghans themselves.

As part of her many duties, Reidinger worked with various branches and levels of Afghanistan officials, instructing them how to coordinate and establish better communication between the fledgling government and the civilian media.

As part of the assignment, Reidinger, who often had to dress in civilian attire, said she helped set up public affairs offices in agencies at all levels in the Afghanistan government.

Having the reliable information, Reidinger added, is extremely important because it allows the Afghan people to make informed choices about their government and the future of their country, which is an opportunity they have never had before.

She also regularly escorted international media crews on their assignments throughout the country.

Reidinger said it's her opinion that many of the things the public is seeing in the media don't really reflect all the progress the country has made over the years.

“It is hard for people who don't get this information to understand the country is growing and improving. We have a media that is thirsty, hungry for information, and in some ways it is actually hurting our ability to assist the country.”

For example, Reidinger compares the U.S. Constitution, which is 235 years old, with Afghanistan's constitution, which was set in place less than 10 years ago.

“There is constantly time lines, there is constant pressure to show change, and to show improvement. And there is so much ridicule of this young country. We have to as much as possible, step back and let the country grow at its own pace. It cannot move quickly toward establishing its rule of law and building its security forces overnight.”

Growing a democracy takes time, Reidinger said, and despite struggling with a low literacy rate, there are highly educated Afghans, many educated in other countries, involved in the process.

“The Afghans need to lead us toward helping them,” Reidinger explained. “And they need to be the ones to say ‘this is the way we need your assistance.' Then, when enough is enough, they need to be able to say they would like us to leave their country.”

Reidinger also described what is happening in Afghanistan as essentially thrusting a country, one that doesn't yet have its own government, into the 21st century. When she talks to Marines in pre-deployment briefings, she cautions them not to compare the Afghanistan people to themselves.

“The people from Afghanistan have their own concept of how they want to live their lives. We aren't trying to re-create the United States in Afghanistan.”

Reidinger said the Afghan people don't want the United States to come into their country and build rows of homes and shopping centers. What they want, she said, is for their cultural identity to remain intact.

“What they would like is to have is peace and security so they can take care of their flocks of sheep or lambs or goats that they have, to ensure they can have their own plot of land to grow food, that they can have a small little school to educate and a mosque to pray in.”

The downside to all the positive that has been accomplished, Reidinger said, is that because the Unites States has been there for so long now, many Afghans are becoming tired of our presence and are feeling we are influencing them in a negative way by pushing the Western culture on them, which makes them feel guilty about the way they live.

While the Afghanistan government will face many challenges during its reconstruction efforts, none is bigger, Reidinger believes, than trying to find a way to establish a revenue base in order to sustain itself financially, such as possibly a system of taxation like we have here or the development of a natural resource into an industry.

Currently Afghanistan is dependent on all the money being pumped into the country from foreign government and non-goverment entities as it rebuilds and modernizes.

“Their government needs to figure out a way to establish a revenue base such as we have here through taxation,” Reidinger said. “If they cannot pay their Afghan National Army troops, or they cannot pay their Afghan National Police, which is their actual law enforcement, then it will difficult for them to move ahead with establishing security. That challenge is ginormous.”

Something else Reidinger said she found interesting about her time in Afghanistan was that it was the first time so many NATO contributing nations were involved. According to ISAF's website, there are 46 contributing nations with a combined troop strength of 102,500.

Reidinger went on to explain that not all of the nations that have contributed troops are NATO partners yet, but they are interested in joining.

“These countries, some who are still young and developing themselves, have committed their troops to Afghanistan in hopes of proving themselves worthy of becoming partners,” Reidinger said. “For international forces, it is much bigger than them being there to help Afghanistan. It is a proving ground for them to show NATO they have what it takes.”

Essentially the country of Afghanistan is broken up into sectors, Reidinger explained, with different nations assigned to each sector on a rotational basis. For example, when Reidinger was in the country, Germany was responsible for the northern sector; Italy the west; the British, Canadians and Dutch the south; and the United States the east.

“To me it was a pleasant surprise. Traveling around the country felt like I was doing a world tour. When you go to these bases, say the German base, you feel like you are in Germany. They have a German chow halls, they serve German food and they are all speaking in German.

“It was a multicultural experience. You are seeing soldiers in all these different uniforms, and of all different ranks and ages.”

James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854.