Ok sat through the terrible upload to bring you a shot of my Mug.
Its a beautiful country. To bad its has stone age housing, 1980's weapons and cell phones only. No landlines, just landmines.
So, here is what the news might or might not be saying. Please be advised this in not positive reading and it is very long.
Things are getting a bit out of control here. Yes the military wins when it comes to any frontal endgagement but that rarely happens here. It is all out guerilla style for the Taliban. They strike at night with Mortars or Rockets and then disappear into the populace. They set so many IED's on the roads that it makes it dangerous to move anything anywhere by road. They control areas INSIDE afghanistan where any military mission would be attacked imediately but since they are intertwined so closely with the populace it make retaliation impossible without massive civilian casualties. The terrian here is basicly similar to the rocky mountain range times 10, making ground vehicle movement slow or impossible. There is zero infrastucture. The capital of Kabul has a western side and a local side. Please guess which side looks better. Now you've guessed which side gets attacked more.
Is the mutinational military presence here nessesary in my book? Yes. Without it the entire population of Afghanistan, especialy the eastern half, would suffer great demise. This is a ruthless almost lawless country at times. It's the wild west with AK-47's. The current government, corrupt as it is, is struggling to hold on to its thin sense of control. Unfortunately its the only thing this nation has.
The average lifespan of an Afghan national is 45 years. One out of ten infants die before age one. One out of four children die before the age of five. Its a Darwinian enviornment it seems at times, with only the strongest surviving. I saw a 6 year old boy, the same age as my son, hunched over a diseal engine on the side of the road fixing it. He had black sludge all over his face and tattered clothing. It was snowing and he was just trying to help his father fix the car so they could get home.
When it comes to women. I have seen western women in downtown Kabul in regular clothing. They still have to at least keep their hair covered. I have seen other richer Afghan women dressed the same. I have also seen traditional blue Burkas on women, in pairs or escorted, that walk down the road but not many. A sad site I witnessed was a woman in a blue burka sitting in the middle of a very very busy street. With traffic going by on both sides of her she sat with her hand raised begging. Most cars narrowly avoiding crushing her. I was a passanger in a car driving by her and I was just stunned. I have seem many bums on the streets of San Diego CA, I have even seen women, but something about this site just horrified me. It was one of those things that you can't explain away or justify to yourself. For this woman, just being out in public by herself could get her beaten and yet she took it even further by sitting in the middle of a street, in the mud, begging for anyone with mercy to hand her anything. My first thought was "dammit someone help her up", either physicaly or finacially. As we passed her my thought was to take a picture but I imediately felt shame for even thinking to do so. So I reserved myself to be drivin by as a spectator to a tradgic life. She would not have been begging if she had any living male family memeber. She was as alone in a crowd of people and vehicles as any human could possibly be.
Right now you could take a break and drink some water before reading on. War is hell.
Our company also delivers cargo by ground. I only work in the aviation wing but know people who coordinate the ground movements. Our convoys have all Afghan national drivers and they have a company owned and operated by Nepalesse that provide convoy escort. The convoys carry food and water, but the most important comodity would be the fuel they move. These convoys do get sniped at times. A few months ago a convoy was taken down completely. All the cargo was taken. All the drivers and Nepalesse soldiers killed. All of this happened under the watchful eye of two U.S. Apache Helicopters whom where not allowed to engage because they where not fired upon. How &*%#ed up is that? The Nepalese soilders where pinned down for a short time before the Taliban closed in on them and they attempted to wave for help to the circling aircraft, but no help came...or excuse me no help was authorized.
I would like to tell you that the this is an entirely different war than Iraq. My Russian pilots tell me that they hope the U.S. dosen't have to say goodbye to as many sons as they had to in the 80's. I hope so too. The Russians lost around 15,000 troops here. The Afghans lost about 1 million people. My pilots tell me that alot of the killing was just mindless slaughter. They had seen thier freinds kidnapped and later returned to them in pieces. Legs, arms and heads in a pile. This drove many of them to purely hate the Afghani's and they killed them regardless of age or threat. I hope as Americans we are able to sustain our respect for life during the course of our commitment here. Most Americans think war is what they see on the news or in the Movies. I would confess to you that its the most terrible thing that can happen to human society. It drags out the deepest, most horrific side of man. The emotions involved with starting it seem small compared to the emotions that escalate and sustain it.
Have I killed others myself? Yes.
In 2001 I was here in Afghanistan and killed 5 Taliban with indirect fire ordered by me. They where a threat to my troops and myself and we completely obliterated their exsistance. It was the most frightining and adrenaline ladin point of time I have ever experianced. It was a step closer to the darkness of man and its frightenly tempting. The next morning I decided I wanted to have kids as soon as I could. I think I recocognized how easy life can be taken and was afraid of not leaving a piece of me behind. I came back to Afghanistan in order to help make up for what I feel shamed about. I do feel bad for taking life, even if it was in combat. I am hoping as a civilian I can contribute to getting this crippled country back on its feet. I would hope that my efforts along with every non profit organization and soldier here can give these people the same sense of safeness and opporitunities we take for granted in the United States. If I get killed here I'll see it as Karmic in a bizare way and would be fine with it.
I most likely will survive, but I hope that when I am finished here I will have gained back a little bit of the humanity I gave up in 2001.
As always. Hug your friends and loved ones tight. Safegaurd the happiness you give and recieve. Don't take anyday, no matter how stressful, for granted. Most of all go out and make someone else smile, just for the hell of it.