From Afghanistan

For the past few days I have been learning everything I can get my hands on. I go through every weapon system and all radios. The last thing I want to happen is to have to jump on a weapon I can’t use 100 percent or have a radio go down and lose contact with my team. From there I review procedures of the team. They follow the Army standard procedures closely, with minor differences, mostly common sense things that apply to individual situations. One of the things I notice is that back in the United States, we focus on safety so much that we forget that we don’t train like we fight. Case in point: back home I would carry my weapon unloaded with a blank adapter on the end of the muzzle. Out here not only do I not put a blank adapter on, ever, but I have a round in the chamber ready to fire. My safety is my finger out of the trigger assembly and my weapon on safe. Some soldiers here have an issue with these differences, so much that when a soldier was shot by a newly converted Taliban, the two surrounding soldiers had problems. One soldier pointed his weapon and pulled the trigger multiple times, not firing once because he forgot to take the weapon off safe. The other soldier being smart took the weapon off safe and fired, but the weapon backfired because he kept a rag down his barrel to keep it clean from dust. The Taliban gunman fired a volley of rounds killing more innocent people and wounding many. Hindsight is always 20/20 and the truth is that if these soldiers trained like they fought, lives could have been saved.

Today is my first real mission out in the community. We have a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the local civic center and a review of the remodeling of the local school. The U.S. built a civic center that will be used by the whole community either for meetings, religious gatherings or a place for children to play. You can’t miss the building either, it is the only building surrounded by mud huts and shacks made from scrap pieces. Ironically, the community does not show in force for the opening out of fear. Fear that the Taliban might see them there and think they are supporting the U.S. and fear that it is so nice that it must belong to the local War Lord. It will take time, but eventually the community will accept it for what it is and slowly but surely they will utilize the building. All I can think of is that this is a great idea since the children are running around with nowhere to go except to get in trouble. So if they could focus the kids on group events and give them a positive time-manager who will shape their goals, then the future would look brighter. In addition, this building gives the elders a nice place to have meetings which is a huge focus in their culture. Meetings are the stepping stone of every relationship here and the civic center allows them to have pride in their community, strengthening the people’s investment in their own country. To further support the community, the school has been refurbished for the upcoming year. Here the children’s vacation is during the winter because they can’t get around, so unlike our children the Afghan children go to school through the summer. The school has no heat or air conditioning, but in their minds it is better to be warm then cold.

The country is so poor that America’s homeless population lives safer, eats healthier and dresses better than the average Afghan. The average life span is currently 43 years old so anyone over 50 is very lucky and rare. When your life is typically so short and when you have nothing to lose, you make the most of what you have. You take every experience and event in you life with a point of view of “this is God’s will and I won’t squander it.” Religion also is so prevalent and important because education is minimal and the community needs a guide for living; here the Ten Commandments are not a story to teach a lesson, they are actual laws. Afghans also hold onto tradition because without it they feel they have no past or identity. These factors result in a community that has unlimited potential but that is very proud and stubborn. In the end I am not here to radically change their beliefs, I merely am trying to show them how to be safer and give them an opportunity to help themselves. In a way I am investing myself in their country just by doing that. Don’t misunderstand me; I don’t believe I will be so invested to the point of moving and living here, but maybe enough to want to visit in a few years to see the good things that have come from my time here.

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