Time, and Afghan Cab Drivers

Well folks, here I sit during my night off on the wonderful slice of heaven that is Camp Cupcake. It's called that because what you have here, is a Stateside mentality in the middle of a warzone. In my entire military career, I have never heard of having to salute people during wartime. The local commander's here have decided that the age old wisdom of not saluting officers due to snipers, and other dangers need not be followed due to how safe it is here. The rocket that went off less than a 1/4 mile from here 4 nights ago was just really a fluke.

Time. Lets discuss the all encompassing thing that is time. It has no meaning here at all. None. Like I said earlier, I have the night off and there is absolutely nothing to due, you can only check your email so many times before you realize, that the people back home don't have much to say from one day to the next. Time here is measured in a countdown kind of mode. Countdown until one goes on leave, till one goes on a 4 day pass, till one rotates back to the world. Having only been here for a little more than 30 days, let me tell you a year is a long damn time. Most other branches of the military are here for less than a year, not the Army, 12 months. If you are Guard or Reserves, you can add 3-6 months on top of that, and they wonder why I won't re-enlist. I am done with this crap ASAP. I'd walk away today if I could get away with it and never look back.

Now for the fun stuff. How many people here have ever pointed a gun at someone with the intention of using it? Not many. I thought so. I was out for a little walk with some friends the other night, and I was pulling rear security. With our enemies using the wonderful invention, the car bomb, when on foot, the biggest danger that we face is cars, both the explosive kind and getting hit by them. The drivers here are nuts, certifiably crazy. There are no traffic laws here. I've seen 2 people on bikes get hit by other locals since I have been here, and they didn't even stop. A cab decided that it wanted to run through me and my little merry band of pals, and I had other ideas. I waved at him to stop, he kept coming, I flashed a light at him, he was determined to get shot. It was only after I raised my M203 (an M4 assault rifle with a 40mm grendade launcher attached) at him that he finally changed his mind. He screeched his brakes, and stayed where I suggested. Folks, let me tell you, he was a heartbeat away from meeting Allah. All it would have taken was a flick of my thumb on the safety, and a squeeze of my right index finger, and we would have had an international incident on our hands starring Yours Truly. Let me let you in on a little secret, I am not one who likes to fight, I will if I must, but I am truly a lover and not a fighter. The idea of ending someone's life over something so incredibly stupid is a bit agonizing, but I can honestly tell you that I would have not lost a moments sleep over this, my life and the lives of my fellow Soldiers are more important than that of a local driver, sorry to sound arrogant, but I intend to go home and get on with my life. I am glad that he and the other drivers stopped and obeyed the traffic laws that were in place that night. Its not easy to raise a weapon at someone, but reflex and training being what they are, oh well. I am safe, he may have been a bit irritated and scared, and his fellow drivers were inconvenienced for a few moments, but if it makes their trip and mine a little safer, than no harm no foul.

Greeting from Kabul

The last place anyone would ever want to be. Greetings and salutations friends, family, and the like. I have been halfway around the world for 3 weeks and let me tell you, it sucks. If anyone has ever been to Juarez, or Tijuana, then you have already been to Kabul. Minus the AK carrying cops. The traffic, the smog, the.....just wonderfulness that it a 3rd world capital. This place is more populous than Los Angeles proper, sits at 5500 feet above sea level, and stinks year round apparently.

Afghanistan from what I've seen is a beautiful country. Rolling hills, majestic mountains, flat plains, green pastures, IED's, mortars, rockets, Taliban, Al-Qaeda, illegal militia's, druglords, warlords, great place to raise a family.

The Afghan people that I have had the pleasuare of working with are warm, friendly, and seem to want to make the their country a better place. They also carry fully automatic assault rifles, and I wouldn't trust most of them as far as I can throw them. Being here is like I got dropped on an alien planet. The Muslim philosiphy is as strange to me as I am sure that we are to them. I have seen women in burka's, women in headscarves, and women going to a nearby German-ran school, so I know that this country is making progress.

I hope that my year here goes by quickly, I believe in the job that we are doing here, after all ladies and germs, this is where GWOT(Global War on Terror) started. The people that planned, financed, and executed nearly 3000 of my countryman were here, I just hope that the rest of the world remembers that we are here and not everyone is in Iraq.

I wish that I could tell all of you more details about what I am doing and what I have seen(and the funny things that makes the Army what it is). I am however trying to remain semi-anonymous, and operational security being what it is, I can't divulge facts that may endanger myself or my fellow Soldiers. So, to my family and friends, I love you all, please send me letters and stuff, and also, a plane ticket out of here, to anywhere, I don't care. (just kidding about the plane ticket, maybe)