In visit to war zone, Snowe praises U.S. troops

WASHINGTON – American troops surprised U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe in Uzbekistan on Thursday when hundreds gathered for breakfast to sing her “Happy Birthday.”

The Republican senator from Maine, who was on a six-day fact-finding tour that took her to Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan this week with a handful of other U.S. senators, said she was totally taken off guard by the impromptu celebration.

“Apparently, they knew I was coming, so a commander read something about me and realized it was my birthday,” she said during a telephone interview from Islamabad, Pakistan.

The brief incident happened at an undisclosed location known as K2 in Uzbekistan that is being used as a staging facility for operations in Afghanistan. Snowe said the U.S. military endeavor here has brought “a new meaning to heroism. It’s the dedication of these troops that has created the success we’ve had,” Snowe said.

“They are practically living in mud,” she said of the soldiers. “Their tents are surrounded by stones and sandbags and they have only crude makeshift facilities. It is all very difficult for them.”

Later in the morning, Snowe and her Senate colleagues traveled to Bagram air base in Afghanistan to visit more troops. They then journeyed for 11/2 hours to the nation’s capital of Kabul.

Maine’s senior senator said she was struck by how the nation lacks even the basic infrastructure to provide such necessities as electricity, water or communications.

International donors have pledged more than $4.5 billion in aid, including nearly $300 million from the United States, for the next five years to help rebuild the war ravaged nation. However, the road to recovery will be long and should remain on Washington’s radar screen of international concerns for a long time to come, she said.

In Kabul, Snowe and her colleagues met with Afghan leader Hamid Karzai and other government ministers. The meetings convinced her that Karzai is committed to rebuilding a nation that the Afghan people will take pride in.

During her visits to Uzbekistan and Afghanistan on Thursday, Snowe said she met with two soldiers with family ties to Maine: Eric Gregory, who once lived in the Boothbay area and has relatives in Bangor, and Timothy MacArthur of Winslow. “I am meaning to call his mother when I get home,” Snowe said of MacArthur.

Snowe will fly to Rome on Friday to visit with United Nations food relief groups working in Afghanistan and then return to Washington this weekend.