Update 3 from our Fobbit out in the Misty Mountains Old... a Sailor serving in a land-locked war.
It’s been a little over a week and it already seems like Groundhog Day. Things are progressing rather well, job wise we are still trying to come to grips with where in this staff we should be. The tools we brought have some benefit, and we are trying to figure out where best they can be applied. It’s a slow process; we’re trying to integrate with a staff that’s very busy and constantly on the move.Still plugging along. I know I got some chuckles over the Army chow, but hey Steak and Seafood day on Fridays sometimes has fried shrimp instead of lobster. The food here is actually pretty good. There is an Arab company doing our messhall, and they keep it pretty diverse. Being NATO you also have the occasional sauerbraten and Marmite is always available for the Brits. No Pirogues yet. I usually stick with Raisin Bran and bacon for breakfast; kabob for lunch (basically a gyro without the bread: meat, lettuce, cucumber and yogurt sauce); and curry and rice for dinner. Tried the pizza last night, not enough sauce and the bread was NOT pizza dough. Some things are better left to the experts.
Schedule here is I get up about 5 or 5:30 and head for the gym (I know, I’m just as surprised as you are.) Shower, eat, work, eat, work, have a team meeting to discuss the work we did, eat, and then watch a movie on the laptop or read until about 9pm. Not such a bad schedule, it’s a little screwy because we deal with the staff here and with our rear team analysts back in Norfolk. We get pretty busy with Norfolk right around the time we stop working with the staff. Time change means they are getting to work in Norfolk when we are stopping work here. (Kabul is 8.5 hours ahead of Norfolk.)
Want to talk about the mission. Overall we are here to support the Afghan government get on its feet. There are three main problems we face: insurgents, drugs and corruption.
Insurgency is not just the Taliban, you have some related Islamic warlord types such as Ghulbbudin and Haqqani, some numbers of Al Qaeda and related foreigners here to fight the Great Satan, and local thugs trying to carve out sections of the country. They have been taking a real kick in the pants lately. The fighting season starts in spring, when the mountain passes clear of snow and the ground thaws enough to plant IEDs. This year when the insurgents came out of their holes they found NATO waiting. They have been off balance ever since, and we intend to keep them off balance all the time. No rest for Mullah Omar this winter. They are getting desperate, we are killing or capturing their best, and they can feel it all slipping away.
Growing poppy for heroin is fairly common, especially in the south. The money helps the insurgency, and causes a lot of corruption. The problem with eradication is giving farmers alternatives. Opium is labor intensive and easy to transport and store. The farmer hires lots of locals to score the poppy and collect the sap. Any replacement crops will have to support these people. Other problem is roads, it takes a lot of time to get crops out to market, and fruit and vegetables would probably rot before they got there. We can take the crops away, but we have to give them something back. My hope is cotton.
Third, and in my opinion the most important is corruption. Lots of people are making a buck off the drugs, and from graft. Its not just Chicago style “donate to the selectman and get a job as a fireman” type stuff (known as “Backsheesh”) but Afghan Policemen getting their entire paycheck stolen. Even when they do get pay, its not enough to live on. Its hard to fault them for being paid to look the other way. While I would like to have some high ranking scalps, the best way to attack that is probably direct deposit. Fix the banking system, and no one gets their hands on these guys pay.
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