"America’s Battalion," 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, completed Operation Spurs this week as part of a combined Coalition and government of Afghanistan offensive against terrorist threats in Afghanistan during the winter months. Leaping from CH-47 Chinook helicopters hovering just above the jagged, snow-covered mountains that ring the Korangal Valley, Marines from both India and Lima Companies inserted into different parts of the valley; they quickly cordoned and searched several houses believed to be hideouts for mid-level Taliban and HIG leaders and fighters.

"We flew in fast and low and jumped off just outside one of our main target’s house," said 2nd Lt. Caleb Weiss, a Lima Company platoon commander. "They couldn’t have had more than a few moments to react to having entire platoons dropped on their heads."

...The Battalion has maintained its high operational tempo despite harsh weather conditions, in an effort to disrupt the activity of anti-government forces here during a time when Taliban and Al Queda elements operating in Afghanistan have, in the past, taken time to reorganize and recuperate.

Across Afghanistan, government officials and foreign aid workers who monitor poppy cultivation have reached a remarkable conclusion: One year after Afghan farmers planted the largest amount of poppy in their nation's history and provided the world with nearly 90 percent of its opium supply, many of them have stopped growing it.

..."I visited 16 out of 22 districts, and I couldn't find a single plant of poppy," marveled Mirwais Yasini, head of the Afghan government's counternarcotics directorate. "It was all wheat."

In Kabul, Hamed Karzai's administration is proud to have rejected the United Nations' transnational oligarch solution of simply razing the crops — instead presenting reasonable punishments and rewards to woo people away from a volatile market. The article ends on an uncertain note, however. Where, goes the new question, will Afghan farmers find their livelihood?

In an attempt to restore the local economy while reviving an Afghan tradition, the government has begun a program to plant pistachio trees in several northern provinces, restoring a crop that has been decimated by years of war and drought. The program began in late January, when 10,000 saplings were planted in the foothills around Maimana, the capital of Faryab province. ...For centuries, pistachios have played an important role in Afghan life.

...Sayed Ahmad Sayed, deputy governor of Faryab, said he believed "this project will bring tremendous benefits both to the countryside and to the people."

Zain-ul-Abidin, in charge of forests in Balkh province, said he hoped the project would also lead to a revival in the traditional festival. "After more than 20 years, it would be nice to have a big celebration," he said. "I would hope all the commanders and the former fighters will come along to honor the pistachio."

War and neglect has taken its toll on the trees. Zain-ul-Abidin added that a successful, national replantation will be found in the bushel after no less than ten years. Some will worry what turns Afghanistan's agriculture might take until then. But no one expected the poppy problem to be mitigated within a few seasons — and isn't preparing for tomorrow a thing for patience, anyway? Here's to the prescient and the wise. And the pistachio festival.