Two posts in one, because each by itself would be rather short.
I woke up yesterday and heard the good news from my Soldiers. I am glad that the old terrorist is finally dead, and did not have the leisure of a natural death. I am also glad that no one will ever be able to honor him at a burial site. The brave men that finally got to take down one of the evil men who changed our worldview in many ways have done a very good thing. Some so-called men do not deserve to breathe. Osama Bin Laden was one of those men. He was an ulcerous tumor that darkened the sky and made the world a worse place. Sometimes the best way to destroy a tumor is through surgery, and the SEALs that killed him were the scalpel that removed him for good.
I do not believe that there will be much effect on operations here as a result of his death. The people are too ignorant to have a true idea of Osama Bin Laden as a person. They are much more concerned with their daily lives and ensuring a good poppy harvest rather than idolizing a non-Afghan. As for my Soldiers, they were happy about his death, but there was no undue celebration. We have a job to do still, and there is no reason to celebrate before we all get home. One of my Team Leader's did ask if we could have the day off and cancel the mission, and establish yesterday as a national holiday, but we went out on mission anyway.
Poppy. As I sit in my bed and write this entry, I am less than fifty meters from a vibrant opium field. It is the lifeblood of Maiwand and all of southern Afghanistan. Opium feeds all of the various enterprises in the area. There are no banks, so opium is used as collateral for loans. Although the harvest is labor-intensive, relatively little effort is required for a huge gain. A small field can provide enough income for a family for an entire year, much more than what the farmers stand to gain from wheat.
The district has begun to eradicate poppy, but it is a slow process, and the district leader is unwilling to destroy the fields close to the center of town. Most of the time when the ANA would go to destroy a field, they would get attacked by the Taliban. All of the insurgency depends on the poppy harvest for funding as it serves as the primary income to buy weapons, IED materials, and support from the populace. Taking down poppy will destroy the ability of the local Taliban to operate, but if we go about it the wrong way, we will lose the support of the populace entirely, and feed the fire of hate against ISAF and the government of Afghanistan. The gains we have made over the past year will disappear if we go about destroying the opium trade too quickly. Only through a concerted effort to both destroy and replace opium as the primary cash crop of the Taliban. Here in Maiwand, we will continue to observe the poppy harvest for the next week or so, and then we will see what happens after that.
We must work to remove opium as a source of income for the Taliban without alienating the population. This is one of the greatest challenges facing the leadership here in Afghanistan today.
I woke up yesterday and heard the good news from my Soldiers. I am glad that the old terrorist is finally dead, and did not have the leisure of a natural death. I am also glad that no one will ever be able to honor him at a burial site. The brave men that finally got to take down one of the evil men who changed our worldview in many ways have done a very good thing. Some so-called men do not deserve to breathe. Osama Bin Laden was one of those men. He was an ulcerous tumor that darkened the sky and made the world a worse place. Sometimes the best way to destroy a tumor is through surgery, and the SEALs that killed him were the scalpel that removed him for good.
I do not believe that there will be much effect on operations here as a result of his death. The people are too ignorant to have a true idea of Osama Bin Laden as a person. They are much more concerned with their daily lives and ensuring a good poppy harvest rather than idolizing a non-Afghan. As for my Soldiers, they were happy about his death, but there was no undue celebration. We have a job to do still, and there is no reason to celebrate before we all get home. One of my Team Leader's did ask if we could have the day off and cancel the mission, and establish yesterday as a national holiday, but we went out on mission anyway.
Poppy. As I sit in my bed and write this entry, I am less than fifty meters from a vibrant opium field. It is the lifeblood of Maiwand and all of southern Afghanistan. Opium feeds all of the various enterprises in the area. There are no banks, so opium is used as collateral for loans. Although the harvest is labor-intensive, relatively little effort is required for a huge gain. A small field can provide enough income for a family for an entire year, much more than what the farmers stand to gain from wheat.
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| On patrol, surrounded by poppy fields. |
We must work to remove opium as a source of income for the Taliban without alienating the population. This is one of the greatest challenges facing the leadership here in Afghanistan today.
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