POPPY TRADE ARTICLE FAILS THE ROAD TEST

Re: "War against poppies is futile," Garth Pritchard, Opinion, March 2.

Having just returned last Friday from two years of working in
Afghanistan, I was most interested to read Garth Pritchard's article.
I respect the work Pritchard does and his understanding that one
needs to be in a country to tell the real story.

Unfortunately, Pritchard's article bore testimony that his 12 months
in Afghanistan over the past two years have not served him as well as
he may think.

Albeit ostensibly focused on the poppy trade, Pritchard made comments
on the lack of infrastructure in the country that are simply untrue.

I served in the private sector as project manager of the Kabul
International Airport initiative as implemented by the ATCO Group of
Companies from Calgary, and as the program manager of the USAID-UNOPS
Secondary and District Roads Program that over the past
two-and-a-half years has built more than 750 km of sealed roads
throughout Afghanistan within a mandate of 900 km and at a cost of
$377 million US.

Pritchard's off-handed remark about Afghanistan's one paved road is
simply irresponsible reporting. Aside from the program over which I
had stewardship and which improved the living conditions of five
million Afghans, paved road construction was at approximately 1,000
km when I left last week. More is to follow.

Outside of Kandahar, we planned and are now building 235 km of road
as part of the U.S. southern strategy. This effort is the most
dangerous reconstruction project underway in Afghanistan and the
UNOPS task force we assembled to implement this ambitious task, which
must be completed before the end of December 2007, has already
achieved paved road conditions since we started in November 2006.

There are segments of this road that are so dangerous that not even
U.S. and Canadian soldiers will venture inside the corridor.

What is more bothersome about Pritchard's comments is the ignorance
associated with the cost to human lives connected to this road
reconstruction effort since 2002.

Within the USAID-UNOPS effort alone, we have suffered approximately
100 fatalities and more than 200 wounded to build roads in
Afghanistan. This toll, tragically, exceeds all but the U.S. military
for human sacrifice in this country and puts in better perspective
the Canadian military cost, which receives daily news coverage from our media.

As a retired army colonel, I am acutely aware of the army's losses,
but to be killed or wounded while building roads in Afghanistan
redefines the reconstruction effort as understood by most Canadians
and western countries.

Unfortunately, this incredible story remains untold, and as
Pritchard's article demonstrates, will remain so.

Stephen Brent Appleton, Colonel (Ret'd), is outgoing program manager,
USAID-UNOPS Secondary and District Roads, Afghanistan.