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28 November 2008
This Week from Washington — November 28
Podcast on Afghanistan, Thanksgiving
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This week, America.gov looks at the progress in building Afghanistan’s army and police force and talks about the meaning of the American holiday of Thanksgiving.
The Afghan National Army is proving to be an effective fighting force that is greatly improving the security of Afghanistan. According to a senior U.S. general, Afghan troops and their commanders now lead about 60 percent of the operations they conduct.
Major General Robert Cone said at a November 25 briefing that the coalition under the leadership of the U.N.-mandated International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, plans to expand the Afghan National Army by another 28,000.
The army currently has a force of about 68,000 soldiers, with another 11,000 in training. That number will grow to a total of 122,000 with another 12,000 in training in 2009. In 2007, the Afghan army expanded by approximately 26,000 soldiers.
Cone commands the unit that trains, equips and advises the Afghan National Army and national police. He said the security force is expanding rapidly and fighting a counterinsurgency war at the same time. While the command has worked closely with the Afghan army for about five years, it began working with the national police only a year ago. Since then, according to Cone, ISAF and the Ministry of Interior have retrained over 22,000 police — more than a quarter of the police force in just one year.
A program to retrain and reform the Afghan border police has also been started. The program is modeled after the highly successful police district program. Over the coming winter, advisers will train 52 units, which will partner with coalition ones. The command is also building about 165 permanent facilities on the borders of Afghanistan.
Cone’s command is the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan. It works with countries participating in NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in training and equipping the Afghan security forces. Assistance in this mission comes from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain.
Thanksgiving Day in the United States is typically celebrated at home or in a community setting and marked with a large feast. Thanksgiving provides an occasion for reunions of friends and families, and it gives Americans a shared opportunity to express gratitude for the freedoms they enjoy as well as food, shelter and other good things.
Many Americans take time to prepare and serve meals to the needy at soup kitchens, churches and homeless shelters. Others donate to food drives or participate in charity fundraisers; in fact, hundreds of nonprofit groups throughout the country hold Thanksgiving Day charity races called “Turkey Trots.”
Thanksgiving also marks the beginning of the “holiday season” that continues through New Year’s Day. The Friday after Thanksgiving is one of the busiest shopping days of the year as people buy gifts for friends and family.
Every year, the president issues a proclamation naming the fourth Thursday in November a National Day of Thanksgiving. It is an official federal holiday, and virtually all government offices and schools — and most businesses — are closed.
The first Thanksgiving is generally traced back to a 1621 feast shared by the English Pilgrims who founded the Plymouth Colony (located in present-day Massachusetts) and members of the Wampanoag Indian tribe.
The Pilgrims had arrived in 1620, crossing the Atlantic Ocean to practice freely their particular form of Puritanism. They arrived at Plymouth Colony too late to grow many crops, and without fresh food, the Pilgrims suffered terribly during the winter of 1620-1621. Half the colony died from disease. The following spring, local Wampanoag Indians taught the colonists how to grow maize and other local crops, and also helped the newcomers with hunting and fishing. The Wampanoag were a people with a sophisticated society who had occupied the region for thousands of years, according to the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington.
The Pilgrims had much to be thankful for in the fall of 1621. The colonists and their Wampanoag benefactors held a harvest feast to express gratitude for God’s blessings.
The legacy of giving thanks, particularly with a shared feast, has survived the centuries. Several U.S. presidents — starting with George Washington in 1789 — issued Thanksgiving proclamations, but it wasn’t until President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation that Thanksgiving became an annual national holiday. He called for it to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November.
Each year the president also “pardons” a Thanksgiving turkey — actually two turkeys, since one is a backup in case the other decides to misbehave during the ceremony. The two fowl, spared from the oven, live out the rest of their lives at a children’s petting zoo.
Thanksgiving is a major travel holiday in the United States. It accounts for the most air and car travel of the year as families and friends try to reunite for the holiday. Many Americans enjoy a local Thanksgiving parade, or the annual Macy’s department store parade, televised live from New York City. Others watch televised American football. Turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie are staples of the Thanksgiving feast.
Thousands of charitable organizations serve hot Thanksgiving dinners to the needy — and millions of frozen turkeys are donated to families each year. Among these caring citizens are the Morongo Band of Mission Indians in San Bernadino, California, who for 23 years have helped families in need at Thanksgiving. This year, the tribe announced that it provided 11,000 turkeys, the largest donation in the history of its Thanksgiving Outreach Program.
It is a reminder of the Native American role in the first American Thanksgiving, a feast held to thank the first Americans for sharing their knowledge and skill. Without that help, the first Pilgrims likely would not have survived.
This podcast is produced by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs. Links to other Internet sites or opinions expressed should not be considered an endorsement of other content and views.
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