Ramadan, Suicide Bombers, and a New Name..

Well, well, here we sit in Central Asia with only 2 more weeks of Ramadan left. Ramadan for those that don't know is the holy month in the Muslim calendar, when the faithful do not consume any food, liquid, smoke, etc during the hours of sunlight, then at the end of the day, they all gather and eat and celebrate their families and the wholesome goodness of Allah. This is proving to be both a pro and a con for those of us visiting this little corner of the globe that aren't one of the "faithful". You see, during the day, our Dining Facilities here on base serve 4 meals a day, and on any normal day, in any normal month, you are forced to stand behind dozens of the locals who work on post as they are allowed to share our food, only fair, they work with/for us and the menu is surprisingly Islam friendly. This can often be frustrating as we have to wait in line for substandard food, and that makes the dining experience that much worse. With Ramadan being here, that whole thing is gone for breakfast, lunch, and the early hours of dinner. Also with Ramadan, I have seen the locals here on base, sneak food, water, and the occasional cigarette proving that Muslims here are people like any other, and that they observe the many varying levels of faith that the rest of us do. Which brings me to my next subject, the Suicide Bomber..

We had one yesterday in our area that killed 2 locals, and wounded at least a dozen more, don't think that it made the news, but that isn't really anything new, this war seldom makes the news. I was once told by friends of mine that during Ramadan, the number of attacks would increase, and damned if he wasn't right. So the moral of the story is that hungry, thirsty, fanatical people of all stripes are nuts. What goes on in the mind of someone that decides to strap on explosives, walks into a crowd, and detonates themselves? Fanatics, hate all stripes of them. I am more than willing to die and kill for what I believe, but to take innocents with me, come on, I'm calling bullshit.

The Taliban are back in Kabul, all you have to do is drive around this city a little while and you will see them. Dark, bearded men with turbans that stare very hardly at Coalition patrols and Soldiers. While it may be difficult to determine who is a Talib, and who is not in the countryside, not so much here in Kabul. The local Afghan's if they have beards, are short, and also if you look close enough you can tell the difference between the Hazara's(Asian features), the Tajiks(Lighter skin tones, and more European looking) , and the predominately Pashtu Taliban(Darker skin, darker eyes, a little rounder than both the Tajiks and the Hazaras). So we watch them, and they us, and hopefully the machine guns keep them away from us and send them over to attack someone else who will be allowed to shoot them(God, how these bastards deserve to die).

Final Thought: Started playing a new game on Xbox, is called The Suffering:Ties That Bind. I mentioned this to another Soldier, and they said that it sounded alot like Afghanistan, I have to agree.