The Ministry came to us begging to fund a media team which
had been cut loose. “But Mr. George,
this is an important function that cannot be allowed to go away” they said
passionately, knowing they had found a sympathetic 2-Star on base to champion
this latest form of welfare. I developed
a few options for leadership, but the viable ones involve us paying. Did I ever tell you about our standing line:
“We do not pay, until we do”. It’s an
uphill battle to get them to see the bigger picture of self-sustainment. As I presented the options to the room of
senior Afghan and Coalition leaders, I reminded them that at the end of the
day, it’s a $180,000 problem, easily solvable given our $4B commitment to this
place, but I reminded them that just a few days earlier, we penalized the
Ministry $1M for some violation and they didn’t seem to notice. Yet, for this insignificant issue, we have
three Deputy Ministers arguing. Where
was this passion over the violation? They
“won” $180K, but lost $1M. I think I’ll
let them noodle that one for a while.
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