[Webstral]

SSC, thanks for posting all that material. Great stuff.

I've read many times that in the years before the fall of the USSR, 50% of the food was coming from 3% of the land. That 3% essentially was made up of garden plots that Gorbachev was wise enough to decriminalize.

One of the advantages the Huachuca command derives from co-opting the former Pact troops, North Koreans, and Iraqis is the experience all of these people have with intensive gardening, farming in dry climates, or both. Dozens of former EPW enter the Samadi (SAMAD adjective) agricultural system and teach the Americans a lot of do's and don'ts. By the same token, a lot of Mexicans know something about growing corn and beans in dry climates or marginal land. Again, Huachuca derives very tangible benefits from putting Mexican refugees into labor battalions instead of liquidating them when the war breaks out. Mexicans and former EPW climb to prominent positions in the Samadi agricultural hierarchy within a year or two.