Inshallah and Other Cultural blah

Inshallah means "God Willing."  Its meaning is that a person who wishes to accomplish a goal will put their heart and soul into a task, devote their efforts, and God willing, their desire will be reached.  In practice, however, it is used as a cover to enable Afghans to justify all kinds of nefarious actions and lack thereof.  One example of this sad phenomenon occurred today.

We took some Afghans with their Colonel to inspect some checkpoints, and rather than have them drive their own vehicles, they rode with us.  No problem.  But, when we returned to base, one of the soldiers asked if he could have a small, portable radio system, in broken English, with much pointing.  I told him "no."  He understood the word "no," I was very clear about it.  We always clear our weapons when we enter a base, so I exited the vehicle and ensured that my weapon was safe to carry.  I decided to look back into the back of the Stryker, and saw that there was an empty box on one of the seats.  I asked the Afghan who had inquired about the radio if he had it.  He said, "no."  I didn't believe him, rightfully so.  I continued questioning him, and eventually, in spite of his lies, he finally produced the radio out of his pocket.  By this our interpreter had arrived, and we began to question why he took it.  He then denied that he ever had the radio!  Absolutely ridiculous!  He even produced his personal walkie-talkie as if that was what we were talking about.  One of my NCOs took a bit of a harsher stance than I, and warned the Afghan to never steal from us again on penalty of extreme physical pain.

The point of this story is that to the Afghan's twisted way of thinking, we shouldn't have put the radios in front of him in the truck if we didn't want him to take it.  Another manifestation of this is their poor shooting abilities.  They truly believe that if Allah wants them to hit the enemy, it will happen as a result of his will, and not the abilities of the individual marksman.  Which really just means that they are horrible shots.  Some are definitely better than others, but this attitude carries over even to the best they have to offer to some degree.

This aspect of their culture is so very counter to our (mostly) independent way of thinking.  I won't get into my views of the lack of rugged independence amongst Americans today, but suffice it to say that the Afghan people are always "take, take, take."  It's definitely something I don't understand, as I've been pretty well independent since I was eighteen, and hate feeling dependent on others.

Perhaps the most sick and twisted part of the Afghan culture is their perversion.  They aren't merely homosexual, which in and of itself, in my opinion, is not wrong, but they are boy-loving woman-haters.  Think about walking down the street in a busy town, then take away all of the women, but add a handful back covered entirely in a burkha, left on the side of the road waiting for their husbands to pick up their "property."  And then you'll start to get the idea about what the Pashtun portion of Afghanistan is like.  Their woman-hating is taken to such extremes that although the Koran is blatantly against homosexuality, sex with men is not gay, only "loving" another man is.  So in their minds, it isn't gay.  Not to mention that they are repulsed by women, in many cases, and therefore instead look to "beardless boys."  Need I say, "Things that make you say, 'bughhh'."

Granted, these have been mostly negative portrayals of the Afghan people, but there are good men and women here who want to make a difference in the lives of their countrymen.  Colonel Tank, one of the Afghan commanders, is one such individual.  He has been a fighter for all of his adult life, and possibly from the time he was a teenager.  He fought against the Soviets in the '80s and against the Taliban in the years following.  He has the 34 bullet holes in his body to prove it too.  He is smart, tough, and aggressive, and represents much of what gives me hope that we can persevere and make this place better for future generations.  

Brief Post

Just a brief post tonight.

I've been pretty busy for the past few days, and anticipate staying busy for the foreseeable future.  I am also mostly without internet, and will be forced to update less frequently than I would like.

Please let me know if there are other topics you would like me to cover, within reason due to operational security. 

More on the Afghan National Army

The Afghan people are certainly unique.  Indeed, there are many who would refuse to be identified as such.  They are Pashtuns, or Hazaras, or Tajiks first, and then they are Afghans second, if at all.  The numerous factions comprising Afghanistan has led to conflicts for centuries, and racism still pervades the society.  The two major languages here are Dari (Farsi) and Pashto.  Of course, much like English, both languages have accents that make it more difficult to understand for translators from other parts of the country. 

While Kandahar Province is primarily Pashtun, the majority of Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers are of other races and from different regions.  This necessarily leads to a bit more conflict than otherwise, even when we use the ANA as the primary means to engage the population in order to reduce cultural misunderstandings.  The ANA are weird.  I know it might sound strange to say it so bluntly, but they are.  Most wear their uniforms correctly, but they typically add decorations to it, such as 7.72mm rounds wrapped around their M16s.  Many have beards or facial hair, and at other times they will wear strange accents, such as wearing a bose headset not attached to a radio.  Typically, we see something strange like this, and just shake our heads.

This leads into why I HATE sharing toilets with them.  They are some of the nastiest, filthiest people on the earth, and they actually don't know how to use a toilet correctly.  Remember the scene in The Green Mile when Percy, the prissy sadist, is asked, "How long did you piss on the toilet seat before you knew it was supposed to be up?"  Well, without going into further detail, I'll leave it at that.  Their hygiene habits are atrocious as well.  If they smell this bad during winter, I can only imagine and look forward with distaste to how bad they will smell during warmer days. 

Their leadership is something of a mixed bag.  Much like any other unit, there are good leaders and bad leaders, although due to the newness of the ANA, there is a higher percentage of bad than good.  On one of our Air Assaults, most of the ANA didn't show up until the helicopters were on the way, and some, including the battalion XO, were unable to rouse themselves in time to make the birds.  Of course, in a later meeting, the XO expressed that he hoped he would be able to get on the next Air Assault since we didn't let him go.

Face.  Not what's on front of your head, but the inability of these people to admit mistakes and move on and take constructive criticism.  Face leads to revenge killings, spousal abuse, and the inability to reconcile past differences. 

Now what I've said might have sounded fairly negative, but there are bright spots.  They are getting better in many cases, and the bad leadership is slowly but surely getting replaced with smart, aggressive leaders who actually care about their country.  Every good Afghan leader I might is a small bright spot in an otherwise dim world, and even a smoldering ash pile can light a forest fire.

Pending no further delays, I'm headed back to Azizullah today.  Now that my computer is working better again, hopefully I can continue with regular updates.  Please let me know if there are other topics you would like to read about.  Otherwise you'll have to be content with my ramblings whenever the writing bug strikes me.

About my living conditions in Afghanistan

First of all, in spite of what many think, not everyone has a rough deployment in terms of quarters and the general quality of life available.  A FOB is a Forward Operating Base, and a COP is a Combat Outpost.  There are also numerous airbases (right now I'm at Kandahar Airfield (KAF)), outposts, strong points, and patrol bases throughout the country.  The military uses these terms to distinguish between various sizes of bases and the level of amenities available to soldiers stationed there. 

KAF is one of the two largest bases in the country, with somewhere around 30,000 people living and working on the base.  They is by no means all Americans, or even just soldiers.  There are many contractors that work here, many from the United States, a lot from third party nations such as Pakistan, and local nationals as well.  In general, there are few differences between the amenities available at a traditional base and here at KAF.  Granted, living conditions are more spartan, but I am typing this entry on my laptop using reliable wireless, and I have a choice of eight dining facilities, or going to buy food at KFC or TGI Fridays.  There are stores for jewelry and rugs and numerous other things for soldiers to spend their money on, in addition to the Post Exchange.  I can go to one of several gyms to work out, or the base is certainly large enough to run on.  This is the heart of POGville (Person Other than Grunt) and is markedly different from the more austere conditions farther away from major airfields.

Rather than going into great detail about the other levels, I will briefly sum them and then move onto describing my personal living conditions at FOB Azizullah.  A FOB is the next step down: it has all of the same amenities as a larger base, but not the variety.  There is a post office, PX, gym, and DFAC.  At least they are supposed to be extant on bases designated FOBs.  COPs have less than above, but generally living conditions are okay, with regular hot showers and access to a gym and internet being some of the highlights.  Everything below a COP is typically less than good: no showers, limited internet, makeshift gym, very little hot food.

I live on FOB Azizullah, but it doesn't really have all of the amenities I just described.  It is supposed to have them, but they haven't yet been built.  Or started.  So what we have is a kitchen that cooks standard Army chow, but they do it in the most expedient way possible, and so the result is sometimes less than satisfying.  Our gym, if you can call it that, has very little equipment, and is almost not worth the effort.  Our internet access is good only in one location: the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation tent.  Everywhere else you are lucky if it works.  We have a laundry room, but you have to be careful or else someone will steal/lose your clothing if you aren't prompt enough changing it from washer to dryer.  And the shower situation is pretty pathetic: there are six shower stalls for about three hundred men, and the last I heard there was only one shower head still working.  There are plenty of other showers on base, but they were all built by and for the civilian contractors, and are off limits to soldiers.  Oh well, at least I can get a shower every once in a while, for one of our companies they don't have showers at all and have to rotate back to Azizullah to refit. 

In spite of how many of you might be feeling what you think is justified outrage at our living conditions, they could be much worse.  It certainly doesn't help that we build up bases so quickly that it is difficult to match the amenities to the number of troops stationed in one location.  But rest assured by the fact that I have a heated, dry tent to call home is good enough for me.  I can read, watch movies on my laptop, play video games or just sleep in relative comfort and peace and quiet (except for when the artillery fires, as my tent is less than one hundred meters from the nearest gun). 

I think tomorrow I will talk some about my impressions of the local leadership and our partners in the Afghan National Security Forces.

Of Shuras and Afghans (not Afghanis, that's the currency)

For my next few entries, I'm going to try and break down my notes and observations into smaller sections rather than one huge jumbled mess of a post. 

One of the regular duties I have is to attend the twice-weekly shuras, shown in the picture above.  One is the executive shura, and consists of the Afghan government leadership coming together to discuss security.  The other is for all of the maliks (chiefs) and other local leaders to come in and complain about one thing or another.  The larger shuras rotate on a weekly basis between security and economic development, but they tend to revolve around the same thing: they want something from us. 

Most meetings follow much of the same format.  Every Afghan that speaks opens by thanking Allah, and asks the permission of every leader there to begin, and wishes everyone well, and expresses their thankfulness that all made it through the week safely.  So when you have even just three or four people who are speaking, and who need to be translated, it quickly makes the meeting drag on.  Then begin the issues.  We have made a great deal of progress in Maiwand, all things considered, as attacks in the town and along Highway 1 have decreased very sharply.  Some of the topics mentioned have a great deal of interest for us, yet others drag on interminably.  For example, at the shura this past Monday, we discussed the emplacement of new checkpoints.  No problem.  But then, even though everyone agreed that new checkpoints would be a good thing, they proceeded to argue over whether the checkpoint should be in front of or behind the village, whatever that means.  It was so bad that our interpreter stopped translating, and instead would occasionally turn back and shake his head at me, just to show how bad it quickly became.  After too long of a time, I even lost the ability to daydream my way through the meeting, and was forced to call the match: I was down for the count.  I left, and maybe fifteen or twenty minutes later the meeting finally ended after three and a half hours.  It was brutal.

The people's shuras can be even worse.  I'm simply fortunate that I haven't been to a shura during the summer yet.  The people here do not wash, and they definitely have a noticeable odor if you get too close.  I won't go into too much detail for fear of boring you as much as the meetings bored me, but suffice it to say that most of the issues brought up revolve around money, and whatever we offer is not enough.  (The young Afghan man in the turban at the center of the above photo is a real dirtbag) That being said, I have learned a great deal from attending, including the need to take local norms into account during operations.  It is not a good thing to handcuff the household elders in front of their families, and having them along when you search their houses shows them that you want to respect their property.  Another key point that I have learned which would have been harder otherwise is how to work with the interpreters to make sentences simple, direct, and plain enough to ensure understanding and easy translation.  The more you speak without allowing for translation equals the more your words get garbled. 

Some of these people really make me angry, and as I sit in the meetings its all I can do to hold my tongue.  One elder asked if we could just forgive an insurgent, because he was a good guy, and we only found a few IEDs in his possession, plus additional material.  All of us Americans just looked at him, unsure of an appropriate response.  The scumbag mentioned above had his car destroyed and although we offered him the maximum amount allowed by law, it still wasn't good enough.  He then had the audacity to accuse us of not listening, when we had spent the past fifteen minutes patiently hearing him out.  I hope he doesn't get a dime...because people like him deserve nothing when there are good men and women here who actually deserve our help. 

I think I'm going to go ahead and end this entry here.  I could probably keep going, but it is now nearly 0130, and I should start to think about bed.  I do have a lot more to discuss, so expect another entry tomorrow.

Long Overdue

It really has been way too long since I have last updated.  My pathetic attempts at excuses will stop after I say that I have been busy, the internet is slow, and my computer hard drive failed.  So with that in mind, I'll try to keep posting over the next few days to keep up to date without trying to write a novel every time I post.

I arrived here at FOB Azizullah about a month ago, and got assigned to the Plans section.  I help make the future operations come together so that the companies below us work together, and are better able to plan on their own.  I also go out on missions with the Squadron TAC, which is basically the personal security detachment for the Squadron Commander.  We go out frequently, although it is typically to go to twice weekly shuras in the town of Hutal to discuss security and economic development within the Maiwand district. 

I'll post more tomorrow, but it's starting to get pretty late.