Month 12 Day 27

I forgot to mention on the battlefield circulation day that when we
were doing the BFC that we were being pelted with rocks from little
kids basically every time that we came in range.  They would first pat
their mouths to ask for food, and almost immediately thereafter they
would grab a rock and throw it at us.  This was not just in Marjeh,
but in Nawa and Garmsir as well.  These are the supposedly safe areas
where the people are turning towards GIRoA.

I worked on a bit of turnover stuff with Siegel in the morning.  He
really is pretty quick to speak and slow to listen.  He came in and
spoke to me about the GSU S1 sergeant who had his hand broken by one
of the GSU officers when he told him that he was not allowed to go on
leave.  I had already told him about the incedent, but I guess he was
thinking that I was just jaded and angry because I had been here for a
year.  While that may be true.  It is also true that I know what I am
talking about.

Lekic taught them the BATS system and the database while I fielded
questions.  The new SSgt is pretty sharp and he picked it all up fast.
 It was nice to see that they were trying to learn.  While I was
supervising that I was striking up conversations with all of the guys
in the COC.  We were having a grand old time.  Munir came in and said
that he wanted to talk to me in his office.  Siegel went first in case
it was anything work-related.  I went in after he got back.  Munir had
kindly bought me a scarf and a jersey.  The jersey happened to be
skin-tight see-through nylon mesh, so I don’t know if I’m supposed to
read anything into that, but it was very kind of them.  They all had a
few words to say.  They all said something like “thank you for all of
the lessons that you taught, I know that a lot of the time we were not
very good students, but thank you for being patient with us.”  I
didn’t make the pictures that Qais asked for, but we snapped a dozen
photos with their cellphones.  I went back to my hooch and I picked up
the AK-47 sight adjusters that I brought from America a year ago and
gave one to Salim, one to Amir Dad, one to Qais, and one to Munir.
Qais wanted to know if he could bring it back on the leave flight with
him, and Munir was excited because he had an AK-47 at home.  I think
that after we go, they are going to us AKs not M16s, they already do a
lot of the time even though the weapons aren’t issued, they’ll just
capture them from the TB, or buy them.  In one last little way, I am
trying to make them better soldiers. I must admit, that I don’t think
it will work, but I tried.

In the early afternoon the soldiers decided to leave on the taps in
the ablution buildings.  They were continually instructed not to do
this if the water tank was not full.   Because this ran all of the
pumps dry every one of the several-thousand dollar pumps burned up.
The GSU’s response was what it always was “we can’t keep the soldiers
from using the buildings—really—how about take your bodyguard and have
him watch the buildings rather than your stupid ass. Anyway, it might
turn out ok in the end, they might just move the water tank above the
level of the highest faucet, this would allow gravity to feed the
system like every other place in the world.  Maybe then they can add a
newfangled ‘windmill’ and this ‘windmill could operate a pump without
diesel.

While we were waiting to have dinner Capt Nowak was sitting in the
door of his truck and said to me.  “the whole point of this thing is
to make the ANA independent, but they don’t want to be independent.
I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life. With the Iraqis
at least you could see improvement.  You knew that they wanted you out
of their country.  They were happy to put up with you in the short
term, but in the long run they wanted to have their country back, and
get you out.  These guys, they are perfectly happy to have us here,
just keep the stuff flowing in.”  I said,  “Steve, as you’ve said you
can’t teach will and want, and these guys don’t want to be
independent.”  He nodded.

In the evening we had our dinner with the terps, or to be exact we had
two dinners.  I was hungry and didn’t want to wait until later to get
food, so I ate at 1730.  That was a mistake.   They had the delicious
burritos that I like so much and I had two giant ones.   By the time I
was done eating the next meal I thought my stomach was going to
explode.   I was really obliged to eat a second time because Steve had
gotten a bunch of special-order food for the occasion.

The presentation to the linguists went well.  They were all very
jovial.  I made sure to tank each one of them, Tony, Naikpai, Dinar,
Sammy, Bashir, Fareed, and the new guy, Jon, who just showed up.  I
got up and gave a short speech about Bashir, how patient he was and
how humble.   I did not mention his religious intolerance.

I also went around and thanked all of the chow hall workers
individually.  A lot of them don’t speak any English and they are from
the Philippines, Nepal, etc, so I don’t think they really understood.

Special Goodbye dinner

Month 12 Day 25

Today started out at FOB Geronimo

I was not happy when we started out.  I thought that our route was unnecessarily risky.  I told the LtCol as much over breakfast.

“Sir, I’ll be happy to see Nawa in my rear view mirror.”

It was a delicious breakfast, as it always is at Geronimo, egg white omelet, French toast, fresh fruit, biscuit, gravy, everything.

I got an intel update from the S2 shop, we were skirting Red-Air most of the day.  Meaning there would be very little ISR or air support for our trip.

We set off south and I decided to break a lot of desert to be well clear of the ‘graves’ two ‘women’ who did not have the typically hunched walk of women were screwing around with them and walking away just as we were driving up.  They also let they burqas flap too freely.  We steered clear and pressed on. 

We went through “Indian Country” as I call it, southern Nawa where the ANA have taken over security and we (Marines) have very little visibility on what is happening.  I was not thrilled about this part of the trip.  We made it through with no real incident.  Thank God and my heart felt pretty good.

We stopped at Geronimo.  I met up with the Legacy mentor there, Steve, and his linguist, Sherif.  We gave them some of the IR strobes that we had given out to everyone else.  He really believes in the mission, and is a team player.  He doesn’t give a shit who gets credit, he wants to put his guys to work and teach them how to kill Taliban.  It is amazing given that he’s been here a year and a half.  I met up with Strom there too.  He is doing well, but he is stuck at the HQ.  His Princton Physics degree was too much to waste at the companies.  By his own admission

“Once they figured out that I had reasonable written and verbal communications skills, they decided to never let me off of the FOB.”

We moved from Dehli to PB Shamshad.  This is now their training academy for the ANA in 2^nd Kandak.  It has expanded a lot since we arrived.  When we got here a year ago they’ve pushed out the wire and added a lot of amenities, power, a big COC.  When we were there last it was four MATV’s and a hut, the SSgt there didn’t want any generators because he didn’t want to be tied down.

While at Shamshod the new team was busy questioning Petranzio, the team lead from their kandak.  LtCol Valquist sat down in the back.  I got a chair and sat next to him.

“Sir, it’s not our fight anymore.”

We overheard them talking busily with Petranzio about ATG, how the training package was still oriented toward the ETT alone and unafraid, how they didn’t learn any of the ANA policies or procedures, they still just did medevacs. I snapped a picture.

“Overwatch.” He said, not giving away too much

There was a pause.

“I was thinking about it the other day, no matter the hell I’ve been through with these guys, I can’t just not care.  Does it get easier when you have a bunch of deployments?”

“Most guys who are just ready to turn over and get out of here are those guys who have a desk to sit behind, who walk to chow, then to their computer, then to chow, then to their computer, then to the gym, then to sleep.  Look at Hesco, he’s turned into a basketcase since he took over the current Ops Job.”

Maybe, but it didn’t answer my question.

We loaded up and went to PB Barcha.  There was no real point, the LtCol just loves the damn place.  It is an old fort the Ghaznavids probably built that has been used intermittently since. Being the highest piece of ground around, the Marines naturally took it. 

I sat down with Dan Petranzio.   The poor bastard was really feeling bad.

“I feel like I’m about to pass out.”

“What’s up.”

“I’m fasting.”

“Ramadan?”

“Yah, I just get useless in the afternoon.  At first it was seven then eight, days then I figured what the hell.”

“Brother, you are nuts, 50 years ago it wouldn’t have been so bad, Ramadan would have been in the winter, you poor bastard.”

I found out later that he was doing it so that he could have the credibility to say to his Afghans

“I’m fasting too, and I’m working, so figure it out.”

Maybe I should have done it.  The Afghans were asking me if I was at the beginning.

We rolled from there, dropped Dan off, he got out and shook my hand as he left.  Good dude.

We rolled across the long bridge for the last time, our minroller had the winch cable snap and it was slightly off to the right. The end of the bridge had collapsed because a jingle truck fell off a couple of months ago.  As we came off the mini bridge and down onto the real bridge with our mineroller the thing climbed the curb and started bending the right railing. 

The Gunny yelled

“LEFT MONDT”

Mondt didn’t respond immediately.

By this time the cab settled down and I could see too.

I yelled, “JESUS, LEFT MONDT.” It was about 60 feet down to the Helmand river, the bridge is so narrow that pedestrians and motorcycles all need too clear out before we cross, and then we only do it one at a time. Our mineroller kept bending the guardrail like it was nothing.  I could barely feel it because my truck weighs 24,000 lbs.  Fuck.

Mondt pulled it out, but what was normally 6 inches of clearance became two inches.

Gunny made fun of him from the turret when we stopped. 

“Here lies GySgt Louis Casanova, savior of Afghanistan drowned in the Helmand river.”

We moved back to base, the dust was bad, I tried to mitigate the dust, but picking a cross track that would keep everyone out of it, but then when we got back everyone bitched about the bumps.  Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

The LtCol shook all our hands, gave us what he called a “man hug” and told us we were not having a meeting.  He basically told us we were done.  

Jokes for days...

'It's not our fight' the new mentors were on deck.

PB Barcha

Month 12 Day 20

Notebook entry

Three reports given, kick out the British, Salim and Qais sleep, 1030 meeting.

Journal entry

I went to the ceremony for Afghan Independance Day.  It was the
anniversary of the end of the 3rd Anglo-Afghan War, a pretty short
nonsense war that just reaffirmed what was already decided, the Durand
line would be the border.  I kind of wonder how the ceremony went over
up in 3rd Brigade where the Brits are the mentors.  They invited LtCol
Valquist to speak and he pulled out the revolutionary war era phrase
"give me liberty or give me death."  At least Afghanistan and America
have independance struggles against the Brits in common.

Salim and Qais were supposed to do class at 1000, but they were both
asleep and Munir didn't have the khootsba to roust them.

At 1030 they had their morning briefing. Graham, Brian and I all pulled
our gear out of our tent so that the next guys could move in.  This
has clearly been a traumatic experience for Graham.  He reminds me of
my dad "don't throw that away, it might be useful."  Brian calls him a
"junkist."  That is, one who collects a bunch of junk for not
particular purpose.  For me it was a labor of love.  It is wonderful
to be able to turn over this place, and move onto a cot in the
knowledge that the next time I sleep on a real bed, it will probably
be my own.

We gave away the chairs that Brian and Graham made to the linguists.
They kindly made me a chair, though I didn't do anything but beat out
some of the stuffing.  Maj Neller, the new team's XO came in and said
"they don't need those things, we'll take them back."  That really
pissed off Brian, he said "we made those things, they don't appear on
the team's density list, they were gifts to our linguists."

At noon, nothing eventful.

In the afternoon our power went down, they claim it was the battery on
the generator, but I suspect the new enclosure was trapping too much
heat in.  I took around the Gunny from CISE and showed him where all
of the contractors live, and because the Route Clearance Company
decided to play ball, there was a big line to get BATed, so none of
the contractors were done this week.

The new team started to show up and put their gear down.  I felt bad
because we hadn't really cleaned our old tent yet, so I ran a broom
around for a while and wiped the floor with some sanitizer wipes.

The XO's new privacy shade

We beat the British Ceremony

Month 12 Day 18

Notebook entry

15 reports given, other conversations, on pussy down, bird in gym goes up, CJ Radin coming over yesterday, why doesn't being hated bother me?

Journal entry

I went to the gym in the morning.  A sparrow, was trapped inside, or
so he thought.  Both doors were wide open, easy enough for two men to
walk through shoulder to shoulder, but the bird was trying desperately
to get out by flying up to the top of the tent, he just kept ramming
into the tent walls, turning, and falling.  His default is to fly up,
it doesn’t matter that the exit is wide open, but down a mere few
feet, he tries to fly up to safety, that is what he is hard-wired to
do, up is the only horizon, the only solution that he knows.  This
struck me as a metaphor of Afghanistan, in two ways the people, all
they have known their entire lives is to be selfish, it is the only
thing that gets them by, the most reliable choice in a world without
an overarching hand to enforce the rules.  The environment has now
changed, but they don’t see it, they can’t fly to the exit, they still
act like they are preprogrammed to.  If they spent their life in the
new environment, then they would understand, but now it’s too late to
change.

So how does the bird make it out, he works himself to death and either
wanders to the exit on the ground because he has exhausted himself, or
someone moves him out of the tent.  This made me think of Amir Dad, my
S2 soldier.  He was able to just go and pick up a bird off of the
ground and it didn’t fly away.  I have never seen a wild bird act like
this.  Every time I tried to approach, it fled, but Amir Dad could go
retrieve it with ease.  I couldn’t help but believe that there was
something fundamentally different about Amir Dad and me.  Amir Dad has
to be one of the most gentle, unassuming and nice boys here.  I asked
him why he became a soldier and he said to me “what’s one to do”
meaning that he had to do something, and this seemed as good as
anything.   He was a farmer back home in his little Hazara community,
but he did something uncommon in leaving and coming here.  That bird
was undoubtedly exhausted when Amir Dad picked it up, but it wouldn’t
go to just anyone, it had to go to someone kind, not like me.  Once
Amir brought it outside, it stayed with him for a while and eventually
flew away.

We were on our way to wake up Munir at 0900. Amir Dad just finished
telling me “it’s not good to wake up people from sleep and then expect
them to work, they will be in a bad mood.”  Such a wonderful and
dutiful Chai boy.
I asked Amir Dad why he became a soldier and I pointed to a small
scrub growing next to the cement pad where the Afghans do ablution.
“Amir Dad, why are you a soldier, if I told you to kill that plant I
don’t think you could do it.”
“If my commander told me to, then I would kill it.” He replied
Sammy, in tow, chimed in. “All Afghans are like this, they will kill
anything if they need to I have seen it with my own eyes, my uncle was
killed in front of me, and believe me, I wanted to fight. For 80,000
Afghanis a man can be killed, for 200,000 a commander, it happened to
my cousin and when I called my uncle to ask why he said that he had no
idea, actually” the last word is a Sammyism that he throws in whenever
he is saying what he believes.
“Where does that come from Sammy, Afghans in America don’t act like
that, yah, we get honor killings of girls wearing western clothes, but
not random deaths for no reason.”
“Actually, I don’t know, sir.”
“Do you think it will ever change.”
“Maybe in 100 years”

So there are the two different views of Afghanistan and I don’t know
what is right, the metaphor of the bird is all screwed up, but the
question is this.  Are there some gentle souls like Amir Dad who are
young and don’t remember the irrational solipsistic reasons to do
things who can live in the new environment of security, or are there
only damaged souls who are only a millimeter away from the exit, but
still choose to act as though they are in chaos.

If it is the latter, then how long will be have to hold the security
blanket on before the find the exit?  How long does it take to change
their programming?  Do they have to be completely exhausted and fall
to the ground first?   Can it be done in a lifetime?  Can some kind
soul like Amir Dad lead them out of their self-imposed prison?  If so,
then who is that man?  I think Karzai is still in his own
cage-of-the-possible. Can we, can they sense that we are here to help?
 Will they come when they are exhausted?

One thing is certain; it seems that the Afghans don’t believe it is
possible, even the gentlest soul will say that he can kill at a whim.
Does their belief comport with reality?  Does their belief matter?  I
find it personally convincing that it does.

One thing I forgot to mention from yesterday.   Chuck CJ Radin came over
and didn’t bring a linguist.  He must have thought he could force my
hand by just showing up.  When I reiterated to him that I could not
give him a linguist because I had been ordered not to, he came up with
the brilliant suggestion
“Why don’t you act as my linguist.”
“Really, you want me to violate the spirit of my commander’s orders if
not the letter.”
I handed him my Persian-English dictionary and said
“Good luck.”
He did come back successful because Munir knows enough English to
understand that he was telling him that he was going to be briefing
these slides.

That was really the reason that I was bound to see Munir in the
morning.  The RCT had made his slides for him and wanted me to show
them to him so he knew what to brief.  I complied.  I showed him the
slides and talked to him about the different between written and oral
communication (they normally just stand up and read their reports
aloud).  I then transitioned into a basic IPB class.   When I started
to show him all of the areas the ‘Dueshman’ come from he asked me:
“Why don’t we have troops there?”
“We don’t have enough Marines to put there in that spot in
Afghanistan, we have a limited number mandated by our congress.”
When I started talking about weapons flowing North out of Pakistan and
drugs flowing south, the same things that Gretchin Peters talks about,
but naming the specific locations he asked me.
“Why don’t Marines go there?”
Such a child-like question, I felt bad for him.
“Brother, my country cares about you, but if we go there, then we
would be at war with a country with 100,000,000 people.  We care about
you, but we can’t do that.  The best we can do is try to stop them as
they come.  We even have a special Marine unit down there that is
protecting your whole brigade from the deushman, without them, a lot
more of your soldiers would die.”
He nodded, but I don’t know if he really understood.  Would I
understand if I were him?  If some alien came to me from outer space
and said.
“We are here to show you a new way of living, we need your help, but
we have certain constraints put on us buy our alien form of government
in a place that you can’t even imagine.  Trust me though, we are doing
all we can to help you, and we are doing the best we can.”
If I believed him, I don’t think I’d understand.  I might even get
pissed at the aliens.

I finished my class with Munir, he went to the combined Ops-Intel
meeting.  I met up with Qais for class.  We reviewed the symbols, the
map locations, cardinal directions.  He is getting very proficient.  I
am proud of him.  He asked me, “why don’t you give me that notebook
that you make me take notes in so I can study?”
“Because I have given you notebooks in the past and you always lose
them, maybe your next mentor will be willing to give you another
chance.”
“When are you leaving, I want you to take pictures and you need to
print them and we can hang them and remember you.”
It's kind of nice, but even when they are trying to be nice, they are
asking for something.

In the afternoon nothing amazing happened.  I worked I what I hope
will be the last command Chronology, and worked on putting together a
binder for turnover.

The other guys stayed up late waiting for a leave flight that didn't
end up coming.  The LtCol mercifully let me go to be early rather than
subject me to a 2100 meeting and the requisite "Call on Me" video.

Month 12 Day 13

Notebook entry

Seven reports given, Qais at class Munir nowhere, Salim at drivers, class with Marines

Journal entry

I tried to meet up with Munir in the morning.  He wasn't around. Salim had put himself back into the drivers course, again, so he wasn't around.  Qais was able to make it to class. 

I told Chuck CJ Radin that we didn't have any linguist support.  The LtCol told me to deny the RCT any linguists because they have linguists, but they have not been able to get them to come over because is Ramadan, so they are depending on our linguists.  CJ Radin send the new RCT-5 GySgt anyway.  He showed up and I wasn't going to torture him, so I gave him a linguist and then watched part of his class to see exactly what he needed and provided him with a lesson, maps, and markers.  He did pretty well. 

Qais was pretty engaged.  He did his first trip to the AO since he has been here the day prior and finally, he was able to see some of the things that I have been talking about. I am not going to go chase the other guys down.  I'll just report it, and the XO will have to manage his staff. 

Came back worked on my book query, ate lunch, and worked on some GMAT prep stuff.

At 1400 I had a class for the junior Marines covering mutual funds and real estate. It was a slow start, but they took to it a bit at the end.

Worked on some stuff for turnover, my 'best practices' uploaded some more stuff. 

I sent an E-mail to ATC offering to come help them train other advisor teams while the rest of the advisor team is on leave.

Went to chow.

Came back and watched a good TED with Brian about simplicity.  The guys was talking about the four characteristics of 'simplicity' which Brian rightley pointed out was really 'functional simplicity.'  Things need to be

1. functional

2. low cost

3. reliable

4. stackable

The issue that we then spoke about for about an hour was whether the financial system was simple.  All of the component parts are simple, but together they get mashed together and have unexpected 3rd and 4th order effects that are very dependant on the tiny fluctuations in the constituent parts, opinion leaders, etc. They are also not simple for the rational human being.  Our brains evolved to deal with plains hunting, not risk derivatives.  There are already some saveguards in place that stop us from acting like dumb herd animals and sticking our proverbial spears into one another (e.g. if the market falls far enough it shuts down), but perhaps the system can get too complicated for the average Joe to understand so it becomes increadibly dependant on the finance mavens. I was thinking about the Marines in my financial management class. 

Its great to talk to Brian.  

Month 12 Day 9

Notebook entry

12 reports given, geometries of fire, Suzan argument, maps with Munir, executive officer maps not from intelligence, drivers course switch, Salima here, translate Maj. B broken hand, Gazette.

Journal entry

One thing that I forgot to mention from two days ago was that the two new guys from RCT-5 were out talking about new places to put guard towers to enhance their fields of fire.  The point here is not that it is tactically unsound because they are turning what would be grazing enfilade fire into plunging fire.  The point is that they are already focusing on the wrong thing.  They believe that their security is going to come from new guard posts and walls, not from good partnering across the street.  We thought just the same thing when we came here.  I remember looking at the RCT-7 guys and thinking 'why don't they always have their weapons close at hand.'  This is a brand new war for them.

I got into it with Suzan this morning.  These deployments are just unnatural and I think that any couple with have trouble with them because if you are a coupling of two people, then you will have trouble being without your partner for a year, and you will have an equally difficult time reintegrating upon your return.   I hope that a heated conversation is as bad as it gets.

I worked on mapping with Munir.  I got him to plot grids on a map and find a grid for a point that I picked.  I was proud of him.  While we were in class together the XO came in.  He wanted to know why were were ordering maps for the S3 section.  He said 'they have their own mentors and they can order them themselves.' He's the most professional soldier we've got and he doesn't realize that maps and all things related  to terrain are in the S2's perview.  He did make the right decision about Salim and the driver's course.  He said that Salim knows how to drive, but when I told him that our soldier who is supposed to know how to drive does not know, he made the switch.  He also got into Salim for half-racking out during my class last week.  I like the XO. 

I bade the General adeau and I resisted the temptation to ask him for a medal as he did from the SecDef for his 15 min of interaction.  Not sad to see him go. 

I came back to the tent met with Sgt Salima and one of the new RCT-5 Sgts, they taught Qais some IPB stuff. 

We were all out of linguists because of the leave flight, and I had been working with Munir all morning without one.  Maj Davidson wanted to get some stuff done and I got thrown under the bus by Capt Arthur. 'Tarjimon Abdul can help you.'  Thanks.  So I became the Major's linguist for the next hour.  It is really hard to do.  The last time I did it was in French in Haiti.  It made my head hurt.  We got the perstats from the Bde, GSU, and the RCC.  When we were almost finished with the GSU one of their Sgts came in and the GSU S1 officer spoke up.  'I'd like to talk to you about something serious.  My sergeant went out this morning to monitor the leave flight.  He told one of the officers, Mohammad Naim, that he was not allowed to get on the flight because his name was not on the list and the officer in turn hit him, told him he was going on leave and broke his hand.  He then went to the General, got his approval, had the Gunny put his name on the list and is waiting at the airport right now'  I was taken aback and relayed the story back to them in Dari to make sure that I understood.  Maj Davidson took it for action.  He went over to pull the guy from the flight.  I don't know what exactly happened on the flightline, but when I came back after chow Maj Davidson told me that the guy left on the flight because the General wanted him to go and the LtCol backed him up.  I said "I wonder why the LtCol did that? He doesn't have a relationship to preserve anymore, we are never going to see the general again?"  Maj Neller, the new OpsO spoke up with his school-house wisdom "you can't undermine the General"--Good luck with that, you are not doing your job if you don't undermine someone who is doing something wrong.  Anyway just then the LtCol Bursts in and says "Everyone but Maj Davidson, get out."  OK well, I don't know how that went, but I know an officer who had just come back from leave a month ago assaulted a soldier who was trying to do the right thing, and we failed the soldier.  The guy shoudl be in the hot box, not in Kabul right now, on an $18,000 flight contracted monitored and produced by the American public.  If we can't stand up to a fat little emperor of a General and tell him that there have to be consequences for assualt, leave policy violation, and that he can't use American air with impunity (even if the guy gave him cash to get on), then what the fuck are we here for?  There are no consequences, we are just enablers.  Maj Davidson took the guy to the Combat Surgical Hospital in the afternoon.  He told the docs 'I know they can handle it here, but I feel so bad for the guy, and I want to show him I care and will support people who do the right thing.  

I worked on the Gazette Article in the afternoon. 

Month 12 Day 7

Notebook entry

Two reports given, drug conversation 80%, map reading, Salima class, Dick Scott built canal, improved geometries of fire.

Journal entry

I came to pick up a linguist an Farhad Darya was singing his 'Brother' song again. 

I sat down with Munir and talked to him about drugs coming onto camp. One of the solders was found a few days prior with a bunch of dope trying to enter the ECP.  I tried to explain that you couldn't combat all of the drug users, just the extreme addicts, but you could target the guys who were bringing it on. There are only a few of them, and their criminal networks coudl be used to smuggle more harmful things  (e.g. IED components).  If you targeted the users 80% of the Army would be kicked out (he agreed).  I also told him that the USMC was getting restless because drugs were flowing from the ANA side to the contractors and to the Marines and we were not happy about it. 

I tried to work with him again on the RFI form.  I figured out why he couldn't give me what he wanted.  He didn't know where Marjeh was on a map.  Once I showed him, it because clear that he didn't know which of his kandaks was there.  Then it became clear that he didn't know how to read a map and thus couldn't pull a grid.  I was assuming too much.  He's an officer and has been here for a while, so I presumed that he knew things that he did not. 

Sgt Salima showed up late to give Qais a class.  This is really aggrevating.  ANA should never wait on Marines. 

I found out in the LOO sync meeting that a guy named Dick Scott was actually the one who built the canal system that created these towns, and that he is still alive and kicking. 

Lt Love one of the new guys made the comment at dinner that this didn't really seem like a war."Three good meals a day and someone else to do your laundry, not bad." Not bad at all not really a war either, this is nation-building and camp building.  I didn't want to tell him that even the company and platoon positions have A/C and internet.  

Month 11 Day 25

Naikpai Hazara comment, schedule class, Qais no-show and fouth Kandak teleconference, sixth Kandak, Capt. Habib back, Bernie leave pistol clothes, linguist/Lieutenant, ditch crap.

Journal entry

One thing I forgot to mention from yesterday.  The other terps were giving Naikpai shit because he was bad-mouthing the general.  They were saying he is your general, he's a Hazara just like you.  I fucking lost it.  I told them that I would crush any of them that made another ethnic comment.  It is the first time I've ever threatened anyone bodily harm on the team, but they shut up. 

In the morning there was some new-to-us gym equipment in the tent at the MWSS, that pretty much made my day. 

I went to see the Major in the morning to discuss the schedule with him and the Sgts, he had already spoken to them about it.  That's nice.  He told the Sgts to show up to class as 1000 and I thought that would be the end of it, but when class time rolled around only Najib showed up.  I had him walk the Sgt from 4th kandak through all of the stuff that he had been learning.  I think that it was nice for him.  He got a chance to see how far he had come, and the other Sergeant was in awe, Najib might as well have been talking about physics.  The end of the class I again went over key terrain in a conventional and COIN fight.

At lunch I worked on some more stuff for Qualcomm, I am pretty pleased with my .pdf ninjary. 

In the afternoon we had the leave flight.  I was checking the roster against my database, but Capt Nowak was out searching.  Bernie tried to keep his pistol with him and said that he had a card which said it was ok.  I told him not to do that, but he didn't listen and Capt Nowak got into it with him.  Ultimately, no pistol went on the flight.  The general's aid also tried to bring like four sets of cammies, when he was told he couldn't take them he went back, put them in the bottom of his bag and came back.  Capt Nowak then proceeded to tear them out and throw them on the ground.  He was pissed that the guy would lie right to his face and further pissed off when they would not pick up their own trash despite his orders.

We had the teleconference in the afternoon.  2nd kandak was here in person in all of his stupidity.  6th kandak was the only kandak to call in.  Gul Rahim apparently refused to show up.  That's not entirely surprising, he's done that before.  On the bright side, Capt Habib is back the longest "school" in the history of Afghan intel. 

We are having more issues with ditch-crapping.  Basically any place where lights aren't shining on them the Afghans will leave their hootch, go to a trench and shit in it.  We used to have the problem by our compound, but now that we have the lights up we haven't seen it in a while.  We think it is just a convenience thing.  They have plenty of Turkish toilets, but it's just closer to shit in a ditch.  The main concern is that we have a couple hundred guys living on the camp, and if they all crap in the ditch especially around the chow hall, then we could have some disease issues.  

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 9

Notebook entry

Seven reportsgiven, article from Col. Schmitt, Gen.'s response to overrun, 30 minute response, spoke in the morning afternoon class with illegible.

Journal entry

I spoke about what happened with the Major in the morning in my journal yesterday. 

After speaking with him I think he was trying to prove that neither he nor Col Schmitt were nieve to the problems that we were running into with the ANA.  He sent out the E-mail which appartently originated from Col Schmitt' desk which described the parallels between Vietnam and the Stan.  I have heard the Col make these comments myself and described them in past journal entries.   It seems like no one wants to get out quite as bad as the guys who are in the military.  Its not that we are tired of war, its just that we all want to win and we don't see how it is going to happen.  As Col Schmitt said 'we can't get these people to get out of their own way.'

We were down to three linguists, niether the Maj or the LtCol were going to go without one, so the rest of us fought over the last guy, and Bash was working on BATing with Lekic.  I wish Gunny hadn't fired Mansor, he sucked, but he worked better than no one.  I was good enough with my Dari to get by in the morning and convey my meaning, but I don't have a big enough vocabulary to finely parse my meaning, so I wasn't about to teach a class.  I spoke with the S2 about some jerk ANA solder who threatened our female Marines, and dealt with some transfer policies.

There were two nearly simultaneous sigacts that involved the Afghans yesterday.  One was a firefight where they reported that they were being overrun, another was an IED strike (we heard about that about 20 min after the overrun). They called the because their kandak had shut off their radio because it was lunchtime.  We run in and tell the General his soldiers are being overrun by 15 Taliban (this was an unpartnered patrol), and what does he do, ask his aid for the cell phone number of the XO, the S3, the S1.  He tells his aid to have the contact the XO via the radio and have him call the General.  He signs paperwork for the Cipher officer, the S1 and other officers, while lounging in his big chair.  He shows only mild concern at what is happening, he eats some of his snacks, and waits for a call back. He sits on his ass in his office for 20 minutes before he decides to go use the COC radio.  He raises one of the kandaks on the radio and one via the NIPR telephone that we have installed in the COC. 30 min had elapsed since the message was passed.  I just couldn't believe how little concern he showed for the death of his own men, you are their commander, you are supposed to love them.  This is where this place is broken, in the heart of the people.  The Marines showed up and the TB scattered in the overrun scenario, and he finds out that he had 3 ANA WIA and 1 ANA KIA.  Based on the type of detonator and the location in the convoy, it seems like they were targeting the ANA.  My ANA S2 doesn't track Sigacts finely enough to understand this distinction, but if they understand this, they are going to be really resistant to our drawdown.   I can't imagine us giving them MATVs, they are hard enough for Americans to drive, and they don't have anywhere near the maintenance culture they need to keep them running. 

In the afternoon we were again running into linguist problems.  The RCT was set to come over here without linguist support.  I managed to get Fareed to help them out, he was reluctant because he was still pissed at me for telling him he had to do his job rather than talk on his cell in the middle of the day.  The leave flight was going at 1600, the time I was supposed to meet with Tawoos.  I told him about a few of the things that were on my mind in my Dari, but again, I'm not good enough to do a class on something I'm not familiar with with him, so we worked through a couple of things, and then we were done.  The leave flight was taking priority over class.

People are all spun up about the SecDef dog and pony.  I was searching for a new job. 

Month 10 Day 28

Notebook entry

Eight reports given, ground poppy eradication strongest tribe, musical chairs, literacy Narallah addition class VI, lunch KGB, duty, priority intelligence requirements with major Kraus, fire, didn't want weather.

Journal entry

I continued to listen to 'Decent into chaos.'  They talked about how ground poppy eradication was done by the strongest tribe.  I wonder to myself, seeing all of the conspicuously undestroyed poppy fields alongside of destroyed ones, if we are just creating another strong tribe...The musical chairs syndrome that we see in the Afghan officer corps (no one gets fired, everyone just gets transferred) starts at the Top, Mullah Omar wanted Karzai to work as the ambassador to the UN under the TB.  Marshall Fahim, didn't get fired when he tried to turn the army into a Panshiri-dominated organization, they all just play musical chairs. 

I went to a literacy class in the morning.  Nasrallah and the new Chai boy Amir were both in there learning.  The teacher was explaining the concept of multiplication through showing them iterations of addition.  There were only six guys in the class, and half of them came late. 

Tawoos was on duty and I couldn't find him in the morning. 

At lunch I talked to the linguists.  Apparently Dinar told them that if they signed up for the internet through sniper hill that I was going to have to search their computers every night, and that all of their traffic was going to be monitored. This is total bullshit.  I explained to them how Intel cannot work on American persons, but I don't think they believed me.  I am not the KGB.  If I work with these guys this long and they still think I'm the KGB, will I ever be able to break the thought process in my Afghans?

Maj Kraus came over and just as he got here we had two of the Afghan tents catch fire.  We all scrambled over there and I started spraying it with the greywater truck and getting the afghans to not look at the tents that were burning but at the adjacent tent to make sure they didn't burn down.  We managed to isolate it, and it was pretty well in hand by the time the mainside fire department showed up and started dowsing it.  It was started by faulty wiring.  Throughout the whole thing, the brand new ANA firetruck that we gave them last week did not move from its origincal position.  The Unity contractors were more responsive than the ANA fire station.

Maj Kraus worked with Bernie on PIRs.  He came back and said that Bernie was already trying to play the rank game.  He thinks that I won't give him things because I can't.  To some extent that is true.  I can't give him a container, humint source money, or anything like that, but for the most part he still hasn't figured out that I will not give him stuff because he has to learn how to do it himself.

I was told in the meeting that I didn't give Bernie any information.  This is laughable, I give him reports every day, but I don't give him the answer.  His job is to think.  Me taking that away is like putting all of the Afghan supplies on USMC equipment for the logistics officer. 

Month 10 Day 17

Notebook entry

53 reports given, conversation with dinar, conversation with the major, Dr.'s birthday.

Journal entry

In the morning I was only able to sleep until 0630, that was not fun because I was really tired and needed to get some extra sleep.  I couldn't.  I went to the shower cut my hair had my Friday breakfast in the chow hall, and then came back to camp.  I fought the battle of the inbox most of the morning and did a good job of it.  I was nice that I was able to access my e-mail from LNK because I didn't have so much to catch up on.  

I took Dinar to lunch.  He spoke to me about how bad he felt about how the Gunny treated him.  I told him everything I could think of.  Gunny's omnidirectional hatred because of his failed marriage, poor relationship with his daughters, the rejection of the USMC.  I told him how we couldn't touch the Gunny because he had reached sanctuary, and how Dinar shouldn't take these things personally.  I told him how other people see what they are expecting to see and therefore see a lazy Afghan when they look at the linguists because that is what they expect.  I told him how to try to turn the other cheek, I talked about Job, I talked about persecution even unto death, and that is where I had to stop.  I felt really bad for him.  

He's like. "you know how it makes me feel when educated marines (12th grade education) say that "I hate this country, I hate all of the lazy fuckers in it.  Do you know how much of my family I risk to be here?  Do you know how much I am reviled by the Taliban. I don't want to complain to the boss because I don't want to be weak, and because he alreday has a million problems with the general.  Just sometime, when Col Schmitt asks, how things are going with the team I want to tell him the truth, but instead I tell him, it's all great, sir."

I met up with Major Tawoos this afternoon.  He is a man with one lazy eye, about 5,5 and a normal build.  I walked into the bedroom and it was cleaner than when it was just Salim.  He had rearrangeed it, there was now a soldier to serve Chai, he gave us some ubiquitous crappy candy and poured some glasses.  He told me  that he started in the Army 25 years ago under the Russians, that he began as a commando went to school in russia, came back and after the Russians fell he stayed in the Army, they put him in the infantry.  When the Taliban came to power he didn't have a job, and then when Karzai came in he rejoined.  He has been working for the pastsix years in Zabul and Qandahar.  Most of his time has been in Counterintel and in HUMINT working for the legacy program.  He told me as he took a drag on his 'pine' brand cigarettes.  He informed me that he really needed to make sure there were no threats inside of the Army and that he had already spoken to the XO about getting a counterintel officer at each of the kandaks.  He had no idea that they were missing regular intel officers.  He has eight kids, three boys, the oldest boy is 14 and the rest are girls.  They live in Kabul and he hasn't been able to see them in two months.  He was hoping to get transferred to Kabul after working for 6 years in the south, but he was not able to.  I told him about his predecessors, he shook his head an agreed that a lot of the officers try to buy their positions, and they are only in it for the money.  He wanted to know how the section was doing and how things were going in the brigade.  I gave him my assessment of his sergeants and how intel was not functioning right now.  He said he needed help with getting air conditioners and stuff for his office and room, I told him that they used to have offices with A/C, but because the S-2 was gone so long other officers took over those places.  He's said this is the most important thing.  I said "really, I thought the most important thing was beating the Talban" He smiled wryly and said "yah, you're right."  I told him about the training goals I had to accomplish with him, the class schedule, my weekly reports, how and when I give them reports, and how things needed to go. He seemed a bit resistant, "I have a lot of experience." well I've heard that before, we'll see.  I set up a time for Salim to show him all that he has learned in the past few months.  I asked him to be careful of Salim's feelings.  Salim has not learned a lot, but he has done his best, worked hard for an Afghan (1 hour per day of class), that's all I ask.  

I went to the birthday of the Hospital Corpsman rate, it is a dumbed down Marine Corps ball, but it is good that they have a little special esprit for the harder lives that they lead with Marines as opposed to how they live on ship. 

Month 10 Day 13

Notebook entry

Seven reports given, work giver of self and creator of self-identity? Awards, Salim regarding the country guys, no party, Dinar's sentiments, general flowers, Salim class comments.

Journal entry

I made it almost to the end of Friedan.  She made an extraordinary claim.  “Work is the giver of self and the creator of self-identity.”  This is why she was so distraught that women were culturally discouraged from working outside of the home in the 1950s. That is similar to what I heard Rick Warren say in the TED talked that I watched a couple of days before that. The problem is, I’m just not sure if it is true.  I have a job, I work for pay, I make a lot of cash, my job is very respected by society, I walk around all day and people call me ‘sir’  this should in theory bolster my self-worth, identity and tie me to the broader world.  I thought it would too when I started it. Maybe it will someday, but I have to wonder if this isn’t an Americanism too.  There are a lot of Afghans here who don’t give a shit about work, they would happily steal their way to the top and live in the lap of luxury, maybe Friedan was part of a bigger culture that glorified careers.  I certainly have trouble with the universality of her claims. 

I worke on Awards for both docs most of the morning.  The Gunny went on a tirade about them at lunch he said that only one person, GySgt Young, rated one.  He also said that HM1 was self seeking.  I told him he had omni-directionaly hatred.  He seems to be really unhappy.  I think this is because he has destroyed his marriage, barely knows his daughters, and has been rejected the Marine Corps that he ostensibly did it for. 

I tried to work with Salim, but he was tasked with getting a list of all of the ANA soldiers who had family members who lived outside of Afghanistan. I E-mailed a list for him again a capability he will never have…

At noon I thought that we were going to do the party that the Public Affairs officer had talked about, but no party happened.  Dinar said this is just bullshit that people say.  Times have changed in Afghanistan. I did get a bunch of plastic flowers from the general they were cheap, but it was nice. 

I had a class with Salim in the Afternoon.  I was trying to teach him about water flow in the AO.  It is important because all the people are farmers. He said ‘fuck all of these peoples mothers, I don’t care if they starve’  he wasn’t serious, but would you say that if you thought about these people as ‘us.’

I got into with Fareed because, he wanted to talk to his family at 1500, he claimed he had to meet with maj Davidson, I confirmed that he did not need to meet with him, I tried to get Fareed and he said he wanted to talk to his family.  I had a heart to hear with him and here were some of his remarks

‘I NEED to go to the MWR’

‘when the Marines give me the sat phone they always give me phone 2, it doesn’t work right’

‘it is not my responsibility to pay for the wiFi in the tents the marines should pay for it for me’

‘I can’t wake up at 0400, I have to go to the MWR at night’

The quick sense of entitlement around here is amazing.

The General Presenting me flowers for my promotion

Myself and Dinar (The general is the photographer)