Month 12 Day 14

Notebook entry

13 reports given, Qais not at class, corruption Garrison support unit, Munir and Garrison support unit 1400 no-show, DRMO plotter.

Journal entry

Normal morning routine.

I met up with Munir briefly in the morning.  An inspector from the
Corps Topographic section was there.  He is part of the overall Corps
inspection team.  I said 'welcome, did you get our map requests, and
what's up with this form that no one can show me that we are supposed
to fill out to get maps, since you are here, do you have a copy?'
Well he didn't like it, he is down from corps and things he's big
shit, I don't fucking care any more.  I just want to get stuff done. I
scheduled a class time with them, and went to talk to the GSU CI.
Munir said that he couldn't compell the CI guy to come to class even
though his unit is subordinate to the brigade, and that he couldn't go
remind him every day "oh, you mean like I do for you on a daily
basis."  I went to talk to the GSU CI Mohammad Aqa,  I told him about
the class he said
"I am very busy"
"with what"
"I'm making this roster of all of the contractors on base"
"How is that part of counterintel?  Do you have a database you are
going to check them against?  This is Afghanistan, such a database
doesn't exist"
"Well, the commander told me to"
"Why do you think he did that"
"I don't know"
"Think real hard"
"I don't know"
"Lets step outside"
We moved about ten feet outside of his office and looked at the
unmortared cinder-block wall between the General's office building and
the GSU commander's office building.
"Where, did this come from? Do you have a block machine on the camp?"
"No"
"So where did it come from?"
"The contractors."
"Yah, the contractors that are trying to build your camp.  You are
stealing from them and putting together half-baked walls over here so
that the General can have a private shitter and shower. This is
bullshit, the contractors factor this stealing into their budgets, and
they end up charging the US more.  You are stealing from my country."
"Oh..."
"So what does that mean about your list?"
"Maybe I shouldn't make it."
"Congratulations, you can be an intelligence officer."

At 1400 they were supposed to show up for class, but they did not.  I,
for one, am shocked. Both Munir and Aqa didn't even let me know.

Instead of class fought the battle of the inbox.  I found out that the
plotter they are using at the Corps level is one of the ones that I
was so glibly rejected on by the MEF G4 almost a year ago.

this was his original E-mail:
-----Original Message-----
From: Knapp LtCol Karl (IMEFFWD G-4)
Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 17:49
To: Nguyen Maj Thai N
Subject: Giving gear to ANSF

Absolutely not! No printers no computers no parts no end items no
uniforms etc. They have their own supply system they can use. We have
been over this a dozen time with units, the answer is always no! If
the kits are excess they better WIR them so another Marine unit can
use Marine funded gear. You need to get this word out to the 'new'
guys. We have already lived this pain last rotation.
S/F
K

LtCol Karl Knapp
I MEF (FWD)/RC-SW C-4
Supply Officer
DSN: 318.357.6413
NIPR: karl.knapp@afg.usmc.mil
SIPR: karl.knapp@afg.usmc.smil.mil

"Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional,
illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream
media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible
to pick up a turd by the clean end."  - R. J. Wiedemann LtCol. USMC
Ret

Funny what a difference a new command element makes.  I guess the
answer is to just ask when the next guys arrive.

The XO is also putting up a HESCO fence around his container, keeping
up with the General/Jonses.

I was so excited about planning my raid to take the community gym
equipment that MWSS has claimed as their own that I had trouble going
to sleep.  This is going to be fun.

Month 11 Day 31

Notebook Entry

10 reports given see above, meeting with Colonels, combined combat operations center picture. Class from Colonel

Journal entry

I printed off four copies of these reports.
1. the personnel and equipment stats
2. the pictures and basic bio on Samir and Razaq
3. the PIRs
4. the HUMINT source funding information

I got all four of the colonels to come over to our tents so we could
speak frankly.

I told them
"Intel is broken in this brigade, the guys we do have think that they
are human photocopy machines.  They have created a PIR list but the
General, being a Muj, doesn't understand how to use it or what it is
for" I gave them a rundown on the manning issues that we had in the
brigade they were shocked, Col Omar had not told them that they were
missing so many guys at this level.  Probably because Col omar didn't
know, he told them that we had no one reporting for duty in second
kandak when we have an S2 and a sgt there. they asked me what I had
given to the section I told them "I require them to just try to use
their own supply system, I realize that the supply system is broken,
but I am not going to consider giving them anything until they at
least try to order their own equipment." they gave me the north-south
on that one.  I found out that Razaq had not been demoted as I was
told he has been promoted to LtCol and he was working for the deputy
counterintel officer at MoD.  Awesome, rewarding failure.  I gave them
a rundown on how long he was gone how he had been implicated in
stealing.  I then gave them a rundown on the HUMINT source funding.  I
told them about the 143,000 that was missing, about the second funds
disbursement while Razaq was on leave, I told them how buddy-buddy the
Corps G2 and Razaq were.  I told them that my guys didn't get anywhere
near the amount of money that they signed for.  I then told them that
I knew that every level of command from MoD on down steals the HUMINT
money and everyone points the finger at everyone else so the system
doesn't work.  I got a bunch of wry smiles.  Then I said "I am intel
too you know" that got some laughs. I told them that my only hope was
that the next generation would come in, the Sgts I have been working
with, take over for the officers and maybe they can change the system.
 Enshallah.

I took them to a class with the Sgts, the sgts showed them some of the
things that they have learned.  They did pretty well.  It was good for
them to see that the Sgts didn't know the Cardinal directions, could
barely remember the areas in thier own AO, and didn't know any of the
friendly or enemy symbology.  It will keep them grounded about what
they can expect. The Cols were a bit annoying about the class, they
sat in the back and asked my guys a bunch of questions that they
didn't know after I told them that they had very limited knowledge.
They kind of hurt my guys feelings.

After the class I took them to the combined COC.  The general got to
walk around and explain to them exactly how we were partnered, got to
call his kandaks and look very important, that made him very happy.  I
had to explain to the colonels how a Combat Operations Center actually
worked, how we used the video feeds from our Unmanned Aireal Vehicles.
 They had never seen anything like it before.  On the way back I had a
conversation with Col Basir, a thin man with an ernest face and a
salt-and-pepper beard. He started
"I look at all this and I don't think we are going to be able to do
this after you leave.  I think the Taliban will come back" he said.
"You might be right, I give the South about two years after we leave
and Kabul about five years, but I hope for your sake that I am wrong"
I told him.
"Why is America so different from Afghanistan?"
"I think its because Afghanistan isn't a country, its just the place
where all of the other countries stopped. People care about themselve,
their brothers, their cousins, clans, tribes, and then way in the back
they might care about Afghanistan."
"You are right, I think the people don't care about Afghanistan."
"You told me all that you know about corruption in the ANA this
morning. Why don't you all do more to stop it? We all know that it
starts from the top, we know that you must see it, why don't you step
in and talk to the mentors in Kabul and get these guys removed."
"I don't have any connection to the mentors in Kabul, I only talk to
the guys at the Corps level. If I had their names I would try to get
in touch with them."   I said truthfully, but knowing that they do not
have the power to hire and fire the bad apples.
"I guess I always assumed that there was so much corruption that you
simply could not remove that much of it." I said.
"Maybe, but there are some good officers out there, but because they
don't have very strong connections or money, they don't go into intel,
they get assigned as the religious and cultural affairs officers."
By this time we reached our camp.
His tone turned dark.
"You know, it is going to cost a lot more money if you leave than if you stay."
I was somewhat taken aback because I didn't have any sway over these
geopolitical issues.
"You might be right I know they said if we had spent 2 billion after
the Russians left that we could have prevented this, but I'm just a
Captain.  I'm trying to do my best, all I can tell you is that I am
writing a book, and I will say in it that there is at least one
officer in Kabul who thinks this might be possible if the Americans
get more involved in defeating corruption"
He nodded his head.
"I will go to Kabul and tell them about the problems at this level, believe me."
I hope he did.

In the afternoon we took a picture at the Regiment of all of the officers.

I came back and this room full of Cols were giving classes to my guys.
 They were not really classes they could use.  They were classes on
counterintel talking a lot about internal threats, they were also
telling them about how they coudl get agents from out in town.  It was
very tactical-level stuff, not the kind of things that Cols shoudl be
concerned about, but with their limited knowledge base they were
showing that they cared in the best way they knew how.  It was
misdirected and it will confuse my guys, but it showed that they
cared, no one would have insulted them if they didn't teach any
classes.

Month 11 Day 30

‘Skipped day’

Journal entry

Started out like a pretty normal Sat.  The meeting was held late in
the morning so that the General could do his pass-in-review.

I went to see the S2 guys and scheduled a class time with them.

I came back and scetched the outline for the manditory Marine Corps
Gazette article that 'we' have to write.  It is entitled "Partnering
to Win" I think the subtitle should be "what the RCT-1 ETT did not do
in Afghanistan.

After that i can an E-mail from Suzan about how our refrigerator went
down hard so I spent a couple of hours searching around to figure out
how to get it repaired/replaced.

After that was done GySgt Exlos came over for a class with the NCOs.
When he came out he said that Najib and Salim were acting like they
were high and he even spoke to them in the meeting about the negative
effects of drugs.  I chewed them out afterward and told them they
needed to show respect in class and not balance bottles on their
heads.

I was a bit annoyed because Munir didn't show up for class, but I
found out that there was a four-man MoD inspection team sent here (no
one bothered to let me know they were coming) he was in charge of
dog-and-ponying them around finding a place for them to sleep, etc.  I
met up with them, it was the counterintel director for all of MoD, Col
Omar, the G2 and 3 other guys from MoD whose billets I can't remember.

I told them that I was going to have a class and they decided they
wanted to come.  they were pretty attentive at first, then the deputy
Zed-estebarat guy said the class was too advanced, one of his
colleagues disagreed and said it was the best class he'd ever seen.
Then one wanted to play stump the Capt, he asked me about the way we
divide terrain. It was a stupid question that showed his ignorance,
but I played along, and showed him that I knew my shit and that he was
a Colonel, wow.  They then grew tired of the class and wanted to go do
some other stuff. That worked out.

Went to chow.

Picked up Maj James Blitz who didn't even bother to give me a call to let me
know he was coming.

The LtCol was playing 'wallyball' with the Afghans so our meeting was
shifted to the right and I didn't get any sleep.  Thanks for
prioritizing.

Month 11 Day 27

Notebook entry

16 reports given, met with Munir, met with executive officer, class afternoon, CJ Radin here.

Journal entry

In the morning I went to see Munir to make sure that the boys were going to come to class.  He confirmed that they were, but he had to go wake them up first.  Both Salim and Najib were sleeping. 

I talked to Qais about this and their plan now that they had three sergeants was to do exactly the same amount of work, but to always have someone sleeping.  Ummmm, no.

I come back and 1000, the time they asked to have class and they didn't show up.  Najib said

"we have too much work to do for the Corps and we can't come to class"

I said "You don't work for the Corps you work for the Brigade and the brigade commander, and the S2 officer, if he tells you that you've got class at 1000, then that's when you have class, and if you'd woken up on time this wouldn't have happened. "

Munir finally got the point and told them to go, but Najib refused. That was not going to happen, so I went to the XO and explained the situation.  I was also not about to give them the reports that they wanted for the combined briefing the next day if they didn't show up for class.  He agreed to send them to class at 1300 (their normal nap time) because they didn't show up at the right time.

1300 rolls around and I try to meet up with them again, only Salim shows up.  I go back to the XO.  He tries to round all of them up.  Munir and Qais are located. Najib is yet to be found. 

I talk to the XO. 

"I'm out of ideas" I say "I have to play this stupid game every time that new guys show up, or that the leadership leaves. I try to treat them like adults, I try to give them discipline like Marines, but they just don't seem to get it."

"How old is the Marine Corps?" He asks me

"235 years old" I tell him.

"Our military is a year old"

"Do Marines sell their uniforms?"

"No"

"Do Marines sell the fuel out of their Rangers?"

"No"

"Do Marines sell the break they are given?"

"No"

"Are Marines Criminals?"

"Not usually"

"Nearly every soldier in this brigade is a criminal, they came here because they didn't have any other option.  It will take a long time to turn them into the same type of military that you have."

Munir arrives and says "Capt Scott Shane told me I didn't have to go at 1300 I was at the mosque"

I say "sure the class isn't for you, but you need to make sure that your guys are there, you have to supervise, you're an officer"

Najib still cannot be located and Salim is ordered to unlock the container in the corner of the camp, the hot box. 

Najib is finally located he says "I was in the mosque" 

"bullshit, Munir was there and he didn't see you" the XO says.

"Go to class, then afterward he needs to come see me" the XO said.

"Is it always going to be like this rie-saib?" I asked of the XO "are you always going to have to beat the hell out of your soldiers and put them in a hot box to get them to do what you want?"

"They'll be at class tomorrow. I gaurantee it."

"Saist rei-saib, besyar tashakar" (OK, XO, thank you very much)

There is one truth here.  I have more patientience and discipline than any of these Afghans.  You don't need infinite amounts, just more than they do.  I may not get my way right away, but I will outlast all of them.  I'm like the Taliban to America.

Class went fine.  Capt CJ Radin came to work on the slides.

Month 11 Day 26

Notebook entry

29 reports given, Salim back, class with Salima, OKOCA

Journal Entry

“This country has no future” That was the last statement that Dinar
made to me.  He went off for nearly 30 minutes at lunch about the
corruption in this country.  “I make more than the General, I haven’t
been able to pay for an engagement party, but the general has a couple
of houses and a staff.  Where did all of that money come from, when we
went to first kandak that XO of 1st kandak had his ass chewed for
giving the weapons they found in caches to the Marines.  Why does the
General care? I’ll tell you why there is a bazaar in Kabul that deals
in weapons, most of these are supplied by the ANA, the ANP.  The XO
himself told me that every officer in this brigade is involved in
corruption.”  Finally he told me a story the punchline was basically
“It’s time to run, run out of this country.”

This all started because he was bitching about how the General was
acting this Morning.  Yesterday, during the leave flight the Gunny had
told some officers who were late that they were not allowed to get
onto the leave flight.  The General came and said
 “Let these officers on the leave flight.”
The Gunny said “no.”
“I am a General I say let them on this leave flight.”
“no”
 “I’ll tell Col Schmitt”
“OK”
The LtCol came in this morning and the General bitched to high heaven
about how he had been dishonored and his position was besmirched.  The
Col decided this was a ditch he was going to die in and told him
“I’m tired of hearing about your culture, lets talk about the culture
we have in common, military culture.  The Gunny is a disciplined
Marine, he follows the rules, that is his job and that is what he is
supposed to do.”

All of this could have been solved if the ANA had arranged their own
flights, but well they are dependant on us, so they play by our rules.

In the middle of the meeting an ANA Lt came up and asked them about
going to SBK.  He and 13 of his closest friends had been left behind
by Capt Arthur when he went up there because after he told them three
times what time they needed to show up, they fail to show up.  The
General wanted us to miracle an airplane because Corps was leaning
into him. Sorry buddy, doesn’t work like that.

For me it has been an uneventful morning.  I loaded up some of my
FitReps to the Qualcomm website, did a bit more job stuff and
registered with Columbia.  Sgt Salim came over at 1000.  He really
pissed me off, he showed up late, had no materials, required a
pick-up.  It was aggravating, this is not what I expect from Marines.

I also tried to sort out the guy who is trying to double-dip as a
linguist and ANA Lt.

I took the terps to lunch after that and our conversation can be seen above.

I came back and met up with Munir and Salim in the afternoon.  Najib
and Qais were both sleeping at 1500.  This is not the right time for
sleep, and it made me wonder if this is how things were going to be in
the section while Tawoos is gone and they are flush with people. On
the face of it it's good to get Munir back, he's gone to school for
about 5 weeks (though he's been gone for 12), and rather than be
reassigned to the kandaks the General wants to keep him at this level
and make him the S2A. He's been a hard-worker in the past, so that
might not be a bad idea. I caught him and Salim up on what has
happened since they have been gone, talked them through what the Maj's
expectations are, and then I called the Maj to see if he had any
additional guidance he wanted me to pass on.  He wasn't tracking on
Munir coming back and wanted to know my opinion of him.  It seems that
my firm but consistent approach has paid off.  He asks for and values
my opinions.

We'll see.

There is a Funny slide that I inserted into an E-mail if you search for this day, then you will find it. 

Month 11 Day 23

Notebook entry

39 reports given, standard time for noncommissioned officer classes, plan for Ramadan, gunnery sergeant class afternoon, Naikpai not a "good Afghan”, video teleconference afternoon, well running.

Journal entry

Maj Tawoos decided to give the NCOs a standard time for classes without discussing it with me.  This caused some issues because the RCT was not able to adjust.  Anyway.  I got them to agree to do another afternoon class.  I also got the major to sketch out a basic plan for the amount of work I can expect from them during Ramadan. 

I took all of the linguists to lunch, as is my general practice.  Naikpai started talking about corruption in the ANA.  Specifically he said that he believed that the Corps G2 and Maj Abdul Razaq were both guilty in stealing the HUMINT source money.  The other linguists started teasing him in Dari.  They asked him why he was telling these guys (me) about corruption in Afghanistan, it was going to give me a bad impression.  They said that he wasn't a good Afghan, and that maybe Hazaras would never be good Afghans.  It's funny that a good Afghan is one who keeps his mouth shut about corruption.

GySgt Exlos came in the afternoon to teach a class to the Sgts.  I was planning on teaching one to Maj Tawoos, but the Corps changed their time for the VTC, so I didn't get the chance to.  I had to go talk to him about some counterintel issues that can't be discussed on this medium because the Agency loves to overclassify stuff.

I went to chow with Capt Arthur in the evening.  His troubles in the past 48 hours were many.  The ANA were stealing the gravel, sand, and concrete that the contractors were using to make buildings for them (they are the only people in the world who can fuck up someone giving them something).  He said they had destroyed the water distro system.  They had broken into the pump house and let the water run, flooding the facility.  One it was secure and as we were driving by a guy was out there using the water to wash his truck.  Their one working fuel truck has an increadibly unbalanced wheel (they turned the other one into a water truck to water their gardens).  We don't know what Sgt Ali hit, but he is still driving like a Bat out-of hell.  Awesome.

Month 11 Day 22

Notebook entry

“Day Skipped”

Journal entry

It was Jumah on Camp Shorabak. No work was had by anyone.  I caught up on a bit of sleep in the morning and had breakfast with the Danes in the morning.  They are a fun crew.  They are the GSU mentors.  They are facing some of the same problems that we are.  Their guys know how to do the work, they simply refuse to do so.  I learned a new word 'favell'  this is the root of the english word farewell.  Ah the vikings, so many colonies so little time. 

I worked out, caught up on some E-mails.  Worked on my book proposal some more, and then went to lunch.  This time I met up with two guys who worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers.  One was a SgtMaj and one was a not kidding civilian.  The SgtMaj was an old Korean guy who explained to me how to cheat the system, and really double-dip on retirement from the military.  He was saying that no matter how close you are to retirement, you can get out, become a DoD civilian, buy the retirement scheme from them, work for an extra ten years, stay in the reserves, get recalled to active duty, hit sanctuary, force them to give you active duty retirement, go back work as a DoD civilian and retire at 50.  If this whole scheme works out, you will make more money in retirement than you did while you were working at either job alone, and once you hit 65 and start collecting social securiy/TSP/401k you will make about 4 times your original salary.  No wonder there is a federal deficit.  They also told me that in the northern region the USACE is spending 2billion on facilities for the ANA alone, awesome.  The old guy was a little more sanguine about the spending.  He didn't think it was entirely money wasted, he thought some good would come of it, those he suspected they were going to tear down all of the metal buildings and use them for scrap and that we should be building mud-huts for these stone-age people.

In the afternoon. I came back worked on the book proposal some more.  Spent some time figuring out the costs of flying to one airport as opposed to another, bought plane tickets for Thanksgiving (I think I acutally did that in the morning).  Anyway.  Maj Tawoos wanted to meet with the Corps G2 and have me come along.  He wanted me to come for dinner, but with my recent stomach troubles, I was not up to it.  I told him I had a meeting at dinner (I didn't), but after I ate I went to see him.  We found him and met up with Col Omar.  The loud-fast-talking lout was sitting in his room.  Papers were scattered and quasi-stacked in bunches along the far wall.  On the left had side of the room there was a bed, on the right had side there was a desk stacked with bottles and trinkets, clearly not used for work.  on his wardrobe there were pictures of him with General Wardak the Chief of Staff of the army, an equally fat lout.  We sat down and he did what he normally did which is start talking before he started listening, he complained about how hard he worked how he was up until 0200 patrolling the base and making sure that everything is secure.  Totally not his job.  I tried to bring up the one issue that Tawoos had asked me to, the manning issues withing the Bde.  I started to tell him verbally and he said to write it down.  Anyway I also tried to talk to him about the teleconference and the utility of regularly scheduling it.  He was oblivious to that.  He continued to ramble on and not listen.  He said how he was glad that Razaq was gone because he was corrupt.  He said that intel is like a business, to which I responded it was too much like a business, too many people making too much money.  He said he had a bunch of hotels in Kabul that he owned and that he didn't need any money (both Tony and I wondered where he got the money for the hotels from).  Anyway, we left and went to the airport.

There Maj James Blitz imparted some of his eastern wisdom on Tawoos 'it takes many years for a sapling to become a mighty oak.' Tawoos looked at him like he was crazy and asked me if he was a Sgt after we were finished.  We waited for our flight to head home on the benches and talked about the linguists who were worth a shit.  We also talked about a cute electric-blond LCpl who was working in the Airport.  Tawoos said 'if we have her in the ANA werry werrry problem.  There would be fights between the XO and the General about who she would work for and who she would sit next to.'  He wanted to know if we had combined sleeping quarters and I told him that all young horny men separated from women were the same and that would cause problems for the women, so we kept them separate for everyone's safety and comfort.  All men are like Tigers he said. 

We got back and I hit the rack.  Somebody left a Cosmo magazine on my bed and I read a page about Ashley Greene before I went to bed.  

Month 11 Day 16

See above, met with the major regarding the trip to Shorabak, Garrison support unit administration officer lunch Garrison support unit administration officer, Major here Gunnery Sergeant here, Mirabon transferred

Journal entry

One thing that I forgot to mention on the 15th was that the General has been demanding a privacy fence for his office (a building really), so of course the task falls to the mentors.  Why he wants a fence I'm not really sure, probably to make himself seem more exclusive, I'm not really sure.  I don't know why LtCol Valquist is entertaining this, but he is.  He ordered us to figure out how to make a fence or buy it with FOO money.  The solution ended up being HESCO barriers not filled, but with Engineer stakes driven into the ground.  I guess it seems pretty ridiculous, but when the SecDef came, somebody from mainside put up a sniper screen around the burn pit, so that he wouldn't see all of the trash as he drove by (that said, the height of the burn pit still exceeded that of the fence. 

Anyway, I met with the Maj and we discussed the trip to Shorabak.  I now understand why he is so desperate to go and is giving every excuse in the book.  He wants to go soon because he wants to go on leave as soon as he gets back.  

I worked with the GSU S1 in the morning and in the afternoon, Said Wali is such a pleasant guy to work with most of the time.  I think my expectations have been lowered, but he sat down with me for about two hours straight as I worked through all of the roster with him.  That is a big spell for any of these guys.  He was about to cut it off and go onto something else, but then he thought better of it.  

the Major and the GySgt both came for class in the afternoon.  That was pretty good by all accounts. 

I found out in the evening meeting that Mirabon-saib, the kind one, had paid off someone in Kabul and was getting himself transferred up there.  

Members of the S-1 Admin section, breaking apart ink cartridges to refill other ones

Month 10 Day 29

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Month 10 Day 25

Notebook entry

Five reports given, meeting, formation in the morning, meeting late morning, Salim gone, Bernie's video teleconference, military decision-making process, weather, communications major maintenance shop up and running.

Journal entry

Yesterday morning the ANA had a slew of meeting/formations/etc.  in the early afternoon at 1400 they had a VTC. Salim left yesterday because the made-up doctor here (he’s really trained as a hospital administrator, not as a doctor, but he thinks he knows what he’s doing) told him that the pain in his stomach was from kidney problems and that he would have to go to a higher echelon of care. 

I fought the battle of the inbox most of the morning.  The Major had me write yet another report on HUMINT source funding in the ANA.  I’ve already written four versions of it. The Corps Mentor team refuses to believe that the money is being stolen.  They still believe that their Afghans are honorable men serving the country and that there may be guys around who steal, but they are the exception.  Everything that I have observed points to systemic corruption within the ANA.  They are trying to say that we are the only brigade that is having trouble with this, but when I speak to the other brigade mentors, they aren’t even involved.  They have no idea what the forms are, how the system works.  The Brits are willfully ignorant.  They simply don’t want to know the answers to these questions because they don’t want to get distracted.  I can understand that.  Anyway, it is kind of frustrating because I have provided the same evidence again and again, and they don’t want to believe it, or if they do believe it, they are only going to look into this brigade.  Oh well.

I spoke to Maj Tawoos in the afternoon and he told me that he needed two things from me.  The number of insurgent cells in each of the districts and the population of each district.   I asked him what he needed this information for, and he said a planning meeting the next day.  I explained to him the planning process, all four steps of the MDMP, and he acted like he knew it once I was finished explaining it.  I further explained that the information he requested was not going to help them in the planning process at all, if that is in fact what they are doing.  He wants me to give him the answer and doesn’t yet understand that my role is not to give him the answer, but to show him how to find the answer by himself.  I am not here to breed dependency.  He seems to think that my job is to work on the thinks that he can’t or won’t do, when my real job is to show him how to do the things that he can’t or won’t do.  I found a good halfway house, I think.  I told him that I would find the population numbers that he was looking for, and then he could bounce his results off of me and I could tell him if it lined up with reality.  I also told him that I would not find the number of insurgent groups in the AOs because that A) doesn’t make sense (the threshold for being an insurgent/collaborator/etc is really the key here since most people cooperate with the TB to some degree at some time) and B) is never going to help them in the planning process. He said he knew how to do link analysis and how to get the info and he would bounce his info off of mine.  We’ll see.  He also protested saying that his job was not to learn, but to operate now.  Sigh.

After his VTC we came back and I taught him how to do the weather.  He is basically computer illiterate, so we had to walk him through every step. Copying, pasting, typing, everything.  He was very happy to learn that.  Well, that’s progress, I guess.

Comm has their maintenance shop up and running the mentors basically built the entire thing (the insisted that the Afghans build two measly wooden benches), but the Afghan CommO is too lazy to build a list of what needs to be fixed.

Month 10 Day 24

Notebook entry

10 reports given, Skype, Sammy, what for, interviews, sleep.

Journal entry

I slept in until about 0730.  Did the regular 3S routine, cut my hair and came back.

I got on the phone and on Skype with Suzan because the connection wasn't fast enough to do both at the same time.  I missed her even more for having seen her.

After that I went to interview two guys who came in from Durzay who were beat up and shot by the TB. This is what I came up with.

Interview #1

Time 1140 Local

Interviewee: Ali Riza, Sgt 2^nd Kandak

Place of Birth: Mazar-i-Sherif

Height: 65in, weight 150lbs

Marital status: married

Place: Clinic, Camp Garmsir

After initial questions about his biography to determine a baseline the interviewee was asked to describe the circumstances that led to him being in his hospital bed.  This was an open-ended question with no prompting.

‘Two of us left our post looking for food.  First we went to a shop with energy drinks.  I purchased some with the Pakistani Money that I had.  I wanted to call home and next door there was a shop that allowed me to make the call, so I went in there.  There were three men in the shop.  The shopkeeper said that two of them were his relatives.  They asked him if me if I would like to stay for dinner, and I said no. At that time the two relatives left the building. I asked the shopkeeper for change to make a telephone call.  While I was on the phone my soldier came in and told me that the two guys who went outside were smoking hashish drinking Fanta.  As he was speaking the men returned to the shop on a motorcycle and began to shoot, they shot me in the arm and then in the butt, then they ran out of ammunition.  I tried to return fire, but they pulled on my weapon and because I only had one good arm, they pulled it free.  They tried to shoot me with it, but they didn’t know how to use it, so they started to beat me with it.  The shopkeeper also started to beat me. While they were beating my weapon broke from the force.  I tried to grab the shopkeeper’s legs to keep him from beating me, but I was not able to stop him.  I made my way out of the shop and tried to run back to the post, but I could not.  I saw a shepherd boy and yelled to him to tell the soldiers and Marines that we were being attacked.  The next thing I remember is the Marine Doctor telling me to stay awake, giving me medicine.  After that the next thing I remember is being in the Marine hospital. Now I don’t know what is going to happen to me they might put me in jail.  I tried to hold onto my weapon, but I just couldn’t.  The S2 says I am Taliban.’

Through subsequent questioning the Sergeant revealed the following.

There are five soldiers at the post.  The post is approx 300m from the Bazaar.  The Marines only have the ANA stand post in the evening, so he was free to go during the day.  Most of the patrols they do with the Marines, but since this was just a resupply they only had two soldiers.  His fellow soldiers knew that he left and gave him money to buy them things in the bazaar. As soon as he left the shop he believes his attackers got on their motorcycle and fled because they saw the shepherd boy running to get help.  He has spent four months in Durzay.  He feels bad because his soldier was hurt worse than him. He believes the shopkeeper is going to accuse him of trying to steal Fanta or pressure him into getting him some, but that doesn’t make sense because he already had Fanta.

Comments:

Before beginning his narrative of events he tried to sit up to speak more emphatically. This was a break from the previous baseline, but it could be attributed to him having been questioned before by the S2 and his desire to emphasize his innocence.

Interview #2

Time 1300 Local 

Interviewee: Salim, Soldier, 2^nd Kandak

Place of Birth: Bamyan

Height: 65in, weight 150lbs

Marital status: Married

Place: Combat Surgical Hospital, Camp Dwyer

After initial questions about his biography to determine a baseline the interviewee was asked to describe the circumstances that led to him being in his hospital bed.  This was an open-ended question with no prompting.

‘We left to go to Headquarters, but stopped in a bazaar at a shop with a bunch of energy drinks and bought some.  I saw the shopkeeper leave the shop and he went to meet up with two guys who were sitting some distance away.  When I approached them they moved behind the bazaar.  I came back to tell my Sergeant and when I came back they came up behind me with a motorcycle and started to shoot.  After they shot me they beat me and my sergeant with our weapons. I don’t know how my Sergeant got out of the shop.’

Through subsequent questioning the solder revealed the following:

He had not spoken to his sergeant since the event.  He claimed that they were going to Headquarters to get supplies. 

Comments:

The soldier’s tone became more emphatic as he continued with his story, but none of the questions broke his natural rythmn.

Irregularities:

The first sergeant claimed that he entered two shops, while the Soldier only claimed that they went to one shop.

The Soldier said he could did not see the sergeant leave the shop, and had not seen him leave, but the soldier did know that he left the shop.

Assessment

It is the interviewer’s assessment that these soldiers left to buy food in the bazaar.  Leaving with this number of soldiers is probably a common occurrence, and not seen as irregular based on them both offering the same information with no prompting. They may or may not have tried to pressure the shopkeeper to give them energy drinks at a reduced price.  They were both attacked in the manner they described.  They were overpowered by their assailants and had their weapons taken.  It is unlikely that they sold their weapons to the Taliban.  The reason for the attack could be many.  Their small size, their ethnic/linguist/religious background (Hazara/Dari/Shia as opposed to Pashtun/Pashto/Sunni).  Their assailants could have had ties to the Taliban, but this is not necessarily the case. 

The irregularities in their stories are slight, and can be attributed to translation errors, medication, and forgetfulness. 

I spoke with Sammy about it after I was done.  I just couldn't understand why people here hate each other so much. There has to be a damn good reason to kill someone else, and I just don't see it around here.  I understand the history of these tribes and clans, but so much of what they did to each other happened 10 years ago.  Let it go.  He started saying that he doesn't understand either.  He is a Pashai, and I don't understand it, but we even see it in the terp tent Naikpai being hazara, Dinar, Tajik, Fareed, pashtun.  

I listened as Josh and Maj Davidson reported on their trip to the Corps.  The Marines up there seem to think that most ANA don't steal, and that they are not in it for themselves.  Speaking to the Danes who run the GSU up there, they were told that the GSU commander recieves about $30,000 US per month and pays off Malouk the Corps commander, directly.  I think they take it personally when you tell them their Afghans suck. 

I the afternoon we worked on turnover stuff and  Iwas ordered to take a nap.  I slept much monger than expected and the boss excused me from the meeting after I briefed my portion.  

I have been thinking about two other things.  

It doesn't matter what you want, only what is possible.  I think that should be the dictum of advising. 

I also wonder whether or not the awards process at the end of tours prevents Marines soldiers etc from being unbiased observers.  Everyone wants to feel like they made a difference.  Commanders write up awards for the hard work of subordinates and are not going to talk about the things that they couldn't accomplish because they were too hard because people are self-rationalizing.  People also start to believe what they continually say, write and read, regardless of veracity.  It is just the way people are.  This is especially true of things that people write/create themselves and put effort into.  America expects unbiased observations from the military, but is that really possible after all, they are human beings.