War of the Worms
Dire Dawa, Ethiopia,
If I woke up one morning and discovered that cockroaches had invaded my kitchen, I'd immediately take action to fix the problem. I'd get busy killing every cockroach I could find. But I wouldn't stop there. Next, I'd figure out where they were breeding and take steps to make it harder for them to do so.
The same tactics are being used by the U.S. military in the Horn of Africa. While embedded with our troops there, I met Dr. Remington Nevin. He looks and sounds exactly how you would picture someone with a name like that. A Johns' Hopkins grad, Dr. Nevin gave up the higher-paying jobs his peers were seeking because he is passionate about one thing - worms.
As the good doctor explained to me over supper one night at our hotel, "Worms cause terrorism." He was only half joking.
His theory? Look at a map of where radical jihadist terror networks find the majority of their recruits - you'll find that it's mainly in places like Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and other places where crushing poverty makes for a miserable quality of life. Then, overlay that map with another showing the places where intestinal parasites are most prevalent. Guess what? The maps correspond almost perfectly.
When a person suffers from intestinal worms, he feels lethargic, has trouble focusing and therefore can't learn well, work well, or see much hope for the future, because whatever nourishment he is able to obtain is being stolen by the worms in his gut. This is a huge problem across much of Africa, one that can be easily remedied: one dose of anti-worm medicine can kill the parasites for a full six months.
And there is no shortage of medicine - USAID alone has tens of millions of doses slated for the Horn of Africa nations. Unfortunately, the medicine can't get to those who need it because, in many cases, these areas are too remote and too lawless to allow their safe delivery.
And that's where the U.S. military comes in. Our troops stationed on the Horn of Africa don't get much press - because there isn't much fighting going on there - at least not in the traditional sense. But doctors like Remington Nevin beg to differ - this is where the real war on terror is being waged right now.
General David Petraeus is fond of saying, "You can't kill your way out of an insurgency." And he's right, unless you count killing worms. Because these wormbusting warriors I met in Ethiopia are stopping the terrorists cold by bringing a better quality of life to thousands of desperately poor people who might otherwise have nothing but extremism to give them hope.