Just A Quick Note

I'm not going to write much this time because I am working on my last blog post. It is going to say some things that would probably get me kicked out of here if I said them too far out from my "get the fuck out of here" date. I have had almost seven months to try and figure out what the hell is going on over here, and I think I have a decent handle on it. I will say some good things and I will say some things that will, no doubt, piss a lot of people off. I'm talking about the people who are supposed to be running this nightmare. So, I think those of you who know me well get the drift of what this is going to be like.

Anyway, today I was fortunate enough to participate in the celebration of "World Drug Day" at the Herat Fine Arts High School. My group, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, was the sponsor and it was a wonderful experience. I was one of the guest speakers and was able to talk to the young students and their families about our program training the Afghan Border Police. First, and, I think, most importantly, this is a coed school, a rarity in this conservative Muslim part of Afghanistan. These young artists showed their stuff and I mean to tell you, some of the paintings were beautiful, and devastating, at the same time. The painting of the blooming poppy flower that is on this page just took my breath away. I am hoping to buy it from the young artist and give him enough money to help him continue to develop his obvious talent. I picked his painting to finish first in the competition, but he came in second. What was wonderful, though, was that the first-place winner was a young woman. This, of course, would have been unheard of during the Taliban years and, in fact, this school would not have even existed, especially since it is coed.

So, I'm down to 25 days and a wake-up and looking forward to getting home, getting on my pony and heading up into our beautiful Oregon mountains with my wife and the doggies. It was 111, today, and I mean, man...I don't care how "dry" it is, that is just God-awful friggin' hot. I have been teaching "Crime Scene Investigation" to the new class of NCOs and they really seemed to like it. I think they understand now why you can't have ten guys all walking through crime scene and why you shouldn't just throw the evidence in a heap in the back of a truck. My good friends Daud and Asef from the Kabul office are coming in tomorrow and it will be great to see them. I don't miss Kabul, but I miss the people I worked with every day for the first four months. Enjoy the pictures.

BACK IN AFGHANISTAN

I'm back in Afghanistan after spending a wonderful 22 days in Oregon with Mona, the doggies, horsies and kitties. We entertained many of our friends and I was able to enjoy one of my favorite things, which is to cook for people who are important to me. There were our horse buddies, my good Vietnam bud Jim and his wonderful wife, Kerry (who have often looked in on Mona and the critters while I have been gone--as have the horsey pals), old family friends, Byron and Louise. Then we had dinner out with Florian and Donna and they also came over for spaghetti. They, too, have been watchful over my wife and I appreciate all of this wonderful friendship from all of our friends. And we had dinner with my good friend, and also a fellow Vietnam veteran, Anne Philiben, who I worked with for more than four years assisting our Central Oregon veterans who are homeless, disabled and disadvantaged. I went to the Monday luncheon of the Bend Band of Brothers, a group of more than 200 veterans from all wars and times of peace. And I had breakfast with my brother and fellow Vietnam veteran, Gil Zaccaro, who finally retired after many years in the Navy and law enforcement. He looks great with his new "longer" hairstyle.

At the Bend Band of Brothers lunch, I was with Anne, my friends Bill Bussey, Bob Maxwell--Oregon's only living Medal of Honor winner--Dick Tobiason, Jake's Diner owner Lyle Hicks, who provides the space and food, and all of my other veteran brothers and sisters who were there. I was greatly moved by those who welcomed me home from my second war, something which did not happen for most of us who served in Vietnam. I was saddened shortly after I return to Afghanistan to learn that my friend and fellow BBoB member, Bill Bussey, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. Bill was the driving force behind the BBoB and cared as much for his fellow veterans as anyone I have met in my 32 years of doing veterans' advocacy as a lawyer and service officer for Vietnam Veterans of America. He was a huge supporter of our outreach program and personally saw that the families of every soldier from Oregon who has died in Iraq and Afghanistan received a memento and solace from the BBoB. He particularly ensured that Central Oregonians paid due respect to those young men and women from our communities who gave their all.

We went to Florida for six great days with all of my friends and fellow Vietnam veterans in the National EOD Association and the Vietnam EOD Veterans Association. Joe, Dave, Doug R, Doug T, Boyd, Bud and crazy Roger—buy a damn computer, you tightwad—and all the others, I love all you guys. The hotel was fantastic, on the ocean; the weather, however, was too cool for either ocean or pool swimming. We attended the somber events at the EOD Training Center at Eglin Air Force Base where we, sadly, added the names to our memorial of sixteen young men and women. These soldiers gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009 - 2010 performing EOD functions that saved the lives of their fellow soldiers and the civilian population which has been so devastated in both countries by IEDS, roadside bombs, car bombs, suicide bombers and all of the landmines and ordnance lying around every place.

That night, we attended a formal dinner with some 1300 EOD men and women and their families. It was one of those few chances when we get to wear our medals and share an evening with those we served with and those who came before and after us. After the dinner, we went to a local bar where EOD people go and partied with about 400 loud, happy EOD people from all the branches of the service. Someone commented that we may be the only field in the joint services who train together, go to war together, party together and no one gets into it. Unfortunately, the trip home was "the trip from hell," with long delays in the airports and lost luggage. It took us longer to get from Pensacola, Florida, than it takes me to get from the Oregon desert to Afghanistan.

On the way back, I stopped in Dubai and spent a nice night at the Traders Hotel, part of the Shangri La chain. Fantastic room, great room service food and a bath with a Jacuzzi. Man, I gotta get a gig in Dubai when I'm done here. Just kidding. Got back to Kabul and immediately packed all my gear, put most of it in storage and headed back to Herat, where Tony and I are now permanently stationed, along with our interpreter, Fahim. Compared to Kabul, particularly after the two attacks, there, last week, and the attack on the Kandahar base, this is like a vacation spot. Don't get me wrong...it's still as dangerous, here, as anyplace else, just less obvious and active, at this time. We pay more attention and never take chances. I got to teach the first half of my Community Policing class to the officers at the ABP base and I think they received it well, foreign as some of the concepts, no doubt, were to some of them. We are trying to convey the idea that they cannot get the people to trust them if they stay in their offices and let the regular patrol officers and NCOs do all the work. One captain said that he knows that when he goes to the villages, the people do not trust him, like they do some of his enlisted men, because they don't know him. I said, "So, there's the reason why we're teaching this class and why you need to be out with your men." I hope he and the other officers, at least those who truly care about their country's future, take the lesson we taught them and put them to good use.

Today is Friday, May 21, here, at about 11:30PM. Yesterday, Tony, me and Fahim, went on a fact-finding mission back to the Kohsan District, where Victor and I went on the humanitarian mission last month. We met, again, with Mr. Ahmad, the District Administrator, several of the village elders, the district counter-narcotics chief and the head of the provincial water and power department. Wahid, from Alternative Livelihood, had put this together, just as he did the previous HA mission. We talked about the huge problems facing the people of Kohsan, largely around issues that related to water--water for the farmers, the bad shape some of the irrigation canals are in, and the need for a dam on the nearby river. We already knew that farmers all along the border with Iran in the northwest were in very bad shape due to the lack of rain this year and the low snow pack this winter.

The District Administrator told us that farmers are leaving their ancestral homes because they cannot take care of their families. The young men are leaving, some turning to crime, because there are no jobs for them. In fact, he told us that, "Bad people are coming from across the border and telling them that there will be no jobs for them and are offering them money to turn to crime." No doubt, much of this criminal activity is related to smuggling drugs, precursor chemicals and other forms of contraband. In many areas along the border, the farmers use an ancient irrigation system called "Karez." It is an ancient underground irrigation system and somewhat of an engineering marvel. They are prevalent in areas such as along the Iranian border in the northwest where the rivers do not flow year-round and there is usually a good water supply from runoff in the mountains after the winter snow. In the area we are concerned about, parts of the Karez system are in disrepair and cannot get the water to the low-lying desert farmlands.

Our local Alternative Livelihoods office made a proposal to have a technical survey done and it was approved by the procurement people in Kabul and a contractor was selected. The cost: $12,000. In the end, the survey did not happen because the Alternative Livelihood people in Kabul said they did not have $12,000 that could be spared for this matter. You have to be kidding me!! Dyncorp gets paid billions to do nothing except sit on their fat asses in their compounds, and we can't find $12,000 to help these farmers, many of whom are starving because of their inability to grow the crops they need to sustain themselves and their families. And our headquarters in Vienna forces us, and all of the UNODC projects in Afghanistan, to give them part of our budgets, money provided by donor countries to help the people of Afghanistan, because they are too lazy and self-important to go look for their own sources of funding. The State Department is going to build a consulate in Herat--for no other reason other than to spy on Iran--to the tune of $100,000,000. I haven't seen long queues of Afghanistan citizens lining up for visas to the United States. But we can’t find a lousy $12,000 to do this survey of the Karez. There is, as they say, something wrong with this picture.

Today is May 25 and Tony returned to Kabul. Tomorrow, Fahim and I will go to the ABP base and I will teach the second part of the Community Policing class. I found out, today, that I have to go back to Kabul on June 6 so I can take a three days class on—get this—how to stay safe. This is being taught by the UN Department of Safety and Security and I am trying to figure out what the hell they can possibly talk about for three days. I got the hostage “survival” material by email today and almost laughed out loud. I am supposed to surrender, not put up a fight and try to—I swear I’m not making this up—find out what I have in common with my captors, assuming they are able to keep me captive. I am positive they will all speak English and that we all like heavy metal. Speaking of which—on the same day my friend, Bill Bussey died, Ronnie James Dio, the great heavy metal vocalist, also passed away. He replaced Ozzy in Black Sabbath and their “Heaven and Hell” album is, maybe, the best metal album ever made. Last year, to celebrate the album’s 30th anniversary, Sabbath toured with Dio and called themselves, “Heaven and Hell.” Their one album is amazing and the songs, “Double the Pain” and “Eating the Cannibals” are just plain killer. Am I right, Florian? Dio was also the singer for Ritchie Blackmore’s, “Rainbow,” and he made a number of great solo albums. I will miss new music from this great singer.
Guess that’s enough for now. Hope everyone is having the kind of weather we are—hot and dry days, cool and dry nights. Perfectly blue skies. Later.

COMMUNITY POLICING, LOTS OF CAMELS AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

I have just returned to Kabul from an eight-day mission in Herat and am preparing to go on leave on Tuesday, April 13. I am happy to be going home to my wonderful place in the Oregon high desert and to be with my wife, the doggies, ponies and kitties. I will be bringing four small carpets for our new wood laminate floors and I can't wait to see how they look. The biggest is 4x6 and the others are all about 3 x 5. Tony helped me pick two of them and explained what made them exceptional, which is the way they are woven and the tightness and size of the weave. Also, when the design is varied and not repetitious this makes them more valuable because it shows that they would have taken a longer time to make. One was made by a weaver from Baluchistan (a province in Iran), one is from Iran (a true Persian) and two are native Afghan.

This past mission to Herat was really good. Tony is home on leave, so Victor and I were together, along with our interpreters, Mobeen and Fahim, and we taught some good classes to the Afghan Border Police NCO Academy cadets and helped plan and lead a humanitarian assistance mission to the Kohsan District Center, a large village about twenty kilometers from Islam Qala and the Iranian border. The Kohsan District actually has about seventy-five kilometers of border shared with Iran, so growing poppy, processing opium and smuggling has historically been a problem in Kohsan. Thanks to employment projects funded by the UN Office of Drugs and Crime Alternative Livelihoods program, and other UN agencies, poppy is now almost non-existent in Kohsan.

These projects include planting saplings which will grow into trees large enough to act as a wind-break from the fierce winds that blow in from the north, across the desert, and last about four months virtually sandblasting anything that gets in its path. So far, 40,000 trees have been planted with another 35,000 to be planted this year. Another project involves 200 men clearing sand and other debris from the irrigation canals. This has allowed better water flow and more water getting to the farmers' fields. A third project is getting former poppy growers to grown saffron which, as you know, sells for a good money. Last year, they grew 18 tons and this year hope to harvest 40 tons.

On the way to Kohsan on the second day of the mission, I was able to see a sight that was simply amazing, beautiful and has been occurring for thousands of years. I witnessed the annual migration of Kuchi herdsmen and their families from Herat Province to Farah Province, where the grazing is better during the summer months. They were in an orderly and extremely long column which included, I'm guessing, hundreds of camels, their herds of sheep and goats and their families. The women and children were dressed in beautiful native clothing and many of them were wearing handcrafted jewelry of gold and precious stones. It was just an unbelievable sight and, as you can see, I took some equally unbelievable pictures. The pet turkey riding on the camel was one of the funniest things I have ever seen but, in the context of Afghanistan and the Kuchi, seemed quite natural. The camels move in a graceful lope and made a lot of noise. When I took a picture of one of the herders, he wanted me to get it out of the camera so he could have a copy. Fahim explained the problem with this in a digital camera, so he settled for a bottle of spring water and was quite happy.

On Sunday, April 4, I taught a class in "Community Policing" to forty-six cadets in the ABP NCO Academy. How weird is that for an ex-public defender and capital defense investigator? It was a subject they had never heard of, let alone being asked to put this theory into practice in their patrols in the communities they serve. My translator, Mobeen, had translated the main points of my PowerPoint presentation into Dari, the language spoken by the cadets, which added to the ability of the cadets to retain what they learned. One of the points I made included the biblical proverb from Matthew, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." I had this phrase translated into Dari and gave a copy to each cadet. I then quoted, first from the Quran, a phrase that says, “O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice,” which has been interpreted to mean that “there should be justice and equity when dealing with people.” Then, I was able to follow this up with a quote from the Prophet, Muhammad, which is in the Sunnah, a book on the way of life prescribed as normative for Muslims on the basis of his teachings and interpretations of the Quran: "A man should do for the people what he likes them to do for him."

My interpreter told me after the class that the students were very impressed with the fact that I had taken the time to look for something from their culture that they would understand and accept. Most importantly, I talked with the cadets about Article 4 of the Afghanistan Constitution which states that all people in Afghanistan are equal--men, women, all tribes, all religions and all ethnic groups. I am hoping this struck a chord with most of them, especially since we have two women NCO cadets in the class (they wear their ABP uniforms under their birkas and their faces are exposed). The cadets went with us on the humanitarian assistance mission so that they could see what happens when you provide people with needed assistance, in this case, supplies of wheat, dried peas, rice, beans and cooking oil. I know it doesn’t sound that nutritious, but these men and boys who work on the Kohsan projects were grateful. Many of them carried off the large bags on their backs, in their wheelbarrows and the backs of their little donkeys. There was a mother donkey with her new colt. The pictures I got took awhile because the colt was very shy and kept hiding under his mom. You can see the wait was worth it.

I attended a meeting in the District Administrator's office, along with Fahim and Waheed Fayeed, the UNODC Alternatives Livelihood coordinator for Herat Province. The District Director for the Ministry of Narcotics was there, along with representatives from the local ABP post, the Afghan National Police and the Afghan Customs Police from Islam Qala, as well as several of the village elders. The discussion centered entirely on the needs of the citizens of the Kohsan District and providing services and jobs that would stop them from returning to growing poppy and being involved in the narcotics trade. I made the point that J55 was training the ABP NCO cadets in areas that would be useful to the people of Kohsan and that they had recently been taught “Community Policing” and how important that was for helping the people find ways to resolve various problems in the community, including criminal activity related to drugs. I said that this was why the 46 cadets had come on Monday so that they could see, first hand, what helping people with simple items like flour, dried peas and cooking oil could accomplish. I thanked the District Administrator for the opportunity to meet with him and the others in the room and the joining with them and the other UN organizations involved in participating in the HA mission.

The District Administrator thanked our organization for coming back to Kohsan to help the people. Waheed briefed the participants on projects being done with Alternative Livelihoods' assistance and said that UNODC would continue to assist the people of Kohsan. The District Administrator stated that he and his people will continue to need international assistance so that his people would not go back to growing poppy. He said that it was very important to “get young people to learn how to farm other crops and to teach them not to use drugs and about addiction.” He wants all of us in the UN to “talk to the people; ask them to tell you about their problems, the corruption they know about and to tell you what they need.” The District Administrator told me that “Kohsan has 75 kilometers of border with Iran” and that “we will cooperate with the ABP and UNODC to solve the problems on the border.”

The District Director of the Ministry of Counter Narcotics said it is a very tough job to stop drugs. He said that they continue to need international support to continue having projects so that people won’t grow poppy and that the Afghan government is giving them “a lot of pressure” to come up with options. He said that jobs are a major issue and that approximately 200 people have left Kohsan and gone to Ghor, Badghis and Farah Provinces to process opium for money. He said that jobs for young people were a particularly important issue because the young people “are going to Farah because they can be paid to work for poppy growers.” He stated that they need more justice, more courts and more ways to fight the smugglers. He noted that they had harvested 18 tons of saffron last year in Kohsan and hope to harvest 45 tons this year. He said that, “These programs must be continued and expanded.” The representative of the Customs Police in Islam Qala said that “we need teamwork to fight all these issues. We all need to work together to stop the growing, the smuggling and the corruption.” It was a good meeting.

This mission made me feel that what we--UNODC--are doing here is the right thing to do. I can't say for sure that anything the military is doing is right and I have my doubts that it is. The recent decision not to be involved in eradication really pissed me off and I cannot fathom the logic, if that is what it is, of General McChrystal and the other military and government leaders who made this decision. It is quite insane, as far as I am concerned. We are not going to eradicate poppy because it would put the poor farmers out of business and they might join the Taleban, or other Anti-Coalition Militias. Oh...boo hoo. By allowing the production of opium to continue, for whatever fucked up reasoning of the military and the morons at the US State Department, they are helping the enemy earn money they use to kill ISAF soldiers. More importantly, this refusal to enforce the laws of Afghanistan--growing poppy is outlawed in their constitution--but it allows the continuation of rampant corruption and criminal activity in the Afghan government, at all levels. This is apparently a cost-benefit matter that the US and coalition governments are willing to accept at the cost of American lives. I am not and neither should you.

It is just that fucking simple. It is immoral, unethical and against every principle I believe in as a former combat soldier who saw this same crap happen in Vietnam. We all know what happened because of explicit U.S. government involvement in drug trafficking in Laos during that war. Thousands of Vietnam soldiers became addicted to heroin. If you talk to any young Afghan involved in the counter-narcotics business, like the ones I work with and those who participated in this humanitarian mission, they will tell you we need to burn this shit to the ground. All of it and right now. They say that the farmers will not become insurgents because they are simply incapable of functioning in that capacity. We can pay them, we can offer them alternative crops. But we cannot support the continued production of drugs that are killing tens-of-thousands of people worldwide. I don't mean to get on a rant, but that's my two cents. Oh, wait, I did mean to rant.

Talk to everyone when I get back on May 7 and I’ll see some of you at the EOD convention.

BACK IN KABUL, REALLY HATING IT AND GETTING

I'm back in Kabul after two great weeks in Herat. If you had trouble with the video on my blog, go to my Facebook page and view what's there. YouTube took down the first one because they say I infringed on the Rolling Stones' copyright shit on the "Gimme Shelter" title and use of their music. Well...here's what I have to say to YouTube: "Eat me, daddy, eight to the bar." Figure that one out. Right now, I can't view my own videos after I put them online, or even videos on sites like CNN. I have uninstalled and reinstalled Flash, Shockwave and Java. I have run my virus scan, Spy Bot and Microtrend Housecall, all of which found no infections. Anyone with any suggestions that work will be put in my will.

Anyway...Kabul still sucks. Bad traffic, bad air and just bad juju, all around. Not only that, but they just told those of us who live at the UNOCHA compound that we have to move back downtown to the Park Palace Hotel, which has now been deemed safe by the UN Department of Security Services. Except for their Close Protection Teams (some of the coolest, most professional guys I've met over here), DSS is a bunch of fucking idiots. They have no clue about the true security situation here, or anywhere, for that matter. We cannot figure out what they base their security decisions on and they are totally secretive about how they do things. But, get this...they are so "secure" that their own web site got hacked last week. Ha, ha, ha. You couldn't make this shit up, if you tried. Yeah, and here's why we have to move.

I've said before that we live way the hell out Jalalabad Road, known as "bomb alley." That's because the local bad guys keep trying to bomb ISAF/NATO convoys when they pull out, or go into, their bases located on Jalalabad Road. We live past these bases, so we have to go by them twice a day, which is, in fact, exposing us to possible incidents. When they told us we had to move out there, I specifically asked, "Uh, isn't kind of fucked up since we have to pass by the main bombing areas twice a day?" "Yeah, but it is all we can do right now because there a lack of housing in town." Which was not exactly accurate, but that's another story. So, now, they have decided that the "Line of Death" (I made that up) begins just east of Camp Phoenix, the area where most of the bombings occur and we are east of that. Hence, now we have to cross the "Line of Death" twice a day and, all of a sudden, the route is unsafe. As I have said many, many times, you could not make this kind of shit up if you tried.

Here's an example of incomprehensible "security" analysis. When we got to Herat on March 11, we went to the local DSS office for our mandatory security briefing. After a lot of "blah, blah, blah" and "yadda, yadda, yadda," this is what we were told: "The number of security incidents is down." Followed by: " But the area is a security problem." Huh? So, I asked, "Well, what kind of things have happened?" "A young girl, the daughter of a rich guy, was kidnapped." "So, what happened." "The kidnappers were eating and she jumped out a window and escaped." Again...huh?
I check the news sites all over Afghanistan--like Afghanistan Outlook, Afghan News Today, al Jazeera English--and here's the only incident in Herat I could find in the recent past before we arrived. Two bad guys trying to set up an IED managed to blow themselves up. From our perspective, that's a good thing. Then we were told that Herat city was so bad, we could not go to any restaurants or hotels. Yet, the nationals go to these places for lunch every day. We gave up trying to understand how DSS arrives at their conclusions because it was hurting our brains, kind of like that Monty Python routine where Michael Palin is a Gumby and tells John Cleese--the brain surgeon--"My brain hurts," while Cleese is yelling for the nurse. As we like to say, "What the hell, it's Afghanistan, for crying out loud."

It’s Saturday night. Had dinner with a group of friends at the UNICA compound where I first lived. It was great and I did all the cooking, something which those who know me well know that I love. Made marinated chicken (teriyaki, white wine, garlic, fresh pepper) and flank steak; fanned, roasted potatoes with rosemary; a vegetable medley of fresh carrots, peas and green beans. Made garlic bread with these great, fresh Afghan rolls with a little Danish unsalted butter, a drizzle of olive oil, rosemary and grated, dry French cheese. A good time was had by all, even when all the gunfire started in the distance. Still don’t know what that was, maybe a wedding.
I finally got my videos to play on my Facebook page. Turns out there was Flash update that you can’t find unless you go through some weird shit in a file called WOW64. Founbd it on a tech site.Follow the link above and it will take you there.

I’m happy because I am returning to Herat on April with my Afghan friend, Daud, who is our National Project Coordinator, and our interpreter, Mobeen. I will be there until the 11th and then return to Kabul to get ready to come home on leave to my wonderful wife, the ponies, the doggies and the kitties...even fat, stinky Stonewall. Mona has practically redone the entire house and I can’t wait to see it. I have picked up three very cool small rugs for the new wood laminate floors. Two Baloche and one Persian. I paid $50 for a Persian rug that is about 3x5 and it would probably sell for $400 in the States. Can’t wait to see how they look.

Victor, my Ukrainian pal, and I will be teaching together at the Afghan Border Police NCO Academy. One of us will teach in the morning, the other in the afternoon. I am going to teach—get this “Community Policing.” If you had told me when I was doing the defense capital investigations that I would be teaching Community Policing, or Crime Scene Investigations, to cops of any country, let alone in Afghanistan, I would have thought you were smoking the dope they make over here. I have had to teach myself about this topic in order to teach others and it has been very instructive. I actually realized that this is the future of serious police work. If the community trusts you, they will tell you where the bad guys and when the dope is coming through. Too much.

Guess that’s enough for this week. Pretty tired tonight and sitting back to watch Animal Planet. Hope everyone is well and that I get to see a bunch of you in about three weeks.

A GREAT TWO WEEKS IN HERAT, THE DESERT, THE IRANIAN BORDER, THE TV FILM CREW AND LOTS OF GUYS WITH GUNS

It is Saturday, March 20. I have been here for ten days and will head back to Kabul on the 22nd. I would rather be here, but we have to do what we have to do. They are moving us in Kabul, yet again, to new housing. This is the seventh move for me in fourteen weeks and I hope it will finally be the last. We are moving from the UNOCHA compound on Jalalabad Road (aka, "Bomb Alley") to the Park Palace Hotel, which has just been approved as secure by the UN Department of Security Services. We are hoping that means they have Gurkha security. We are pretty happy about this turn of events because it is only two blocks from our office. No more getting up at 5AM so we can leave UNOCHA before six and miss "prime bombing hours." We are also hoping that our big boss, Jean-Luc, will give us the okay to be in Herat permanently, which is actually what was supposed to happen when I got here.

I almost don't know where to begin about this trip to Herat. We spent four days running across the desert and up and down the Iranian border with the Afghan Border Police. Thursday and Friday, we were joined by a Channel 4 London (connected to BBC 2) film crew who followed us and our ABP security team to several remote border posts. They are making a documentary about the situation on the border, the ABP and the whole issue about the drug trade going across the border into Iran. They spent a lot of time interviewing Tony and the men of the ABP, as well as Kuchi tribal leaders who met us at one of the posts ands talked about the problems in their villages and for their people.

Their top concerns were water, electric power and schools for their children. Tony talked with the UNODC Alternative Livelihood and World Food Program people back at our base in Herat and they will be taking humanitarian assistance to one village at the end of the month, and the other village we visited on Tuesday, the first week of April. This will be good for our program and the ABP because it will show that we follow through when we say we will help them. We are also hoping to figure out a way to bring them medical care, which was also a major issue. Many of their children appeared to have respiratory problems and several seemed to have some kind of palsy. The Kuchi raise goats and sheep and they live a harsh existence, particularly in the winter. They told us that they had people die this past winter because of deep snow, extreme cold and no ability to get out of their villages to a safer environment, or for help to get to them.

Yesterday, Victor (a retired Ukranian police colonel and former Russian airborne soldier) and I and our interpreter, Fahim, spent about four hours in a bivouac at the base of a small, steep hill where a border post was located on top. There was only room for three vehicles at the end of the very steep road going up there, so Tony, the film crew and one truck of security went up and did interviews and a lot of filming. The rest of the ABP crew and us had the area around the base secured and they sent men out across the nearby desert to take up positions on higher ground. It was very cool.

I ended up being invited for tea and lunch, first by the company commander and, then, about an hour later, by the brigade executive officer, Col. Hammadullah, whom Tony has known for a long time. It was very nice to sit under a home-made tent draped from the colonel's truck to the top of a small hill that was adjacent. They had put a blanket on the ground and it was good to get out of the heat of the day. We had strong black tea, rice, fresh baked (at the ABP post) bread and boiled beef. I added plastic toothpick/flossers to the mix, which went over really well. It was nice to be asked to join the mission command for lunch, which also included the 2nd battalion (kandak) commander, platoon leaders and the first sergeant. Col. Hammadullah is quite the figure and I have included a picture of him with this post. He is great at exhorting his men to defend their country and telling them that their task is daunting and dangerous, something which I think the rank-and-file officers know, anyway.

The young men who accompanied us as security--there were between 12-14 trucks, 6-8 men per truck--were from the brigade Quick Reaction Force and they seemed committed to their job. Each truck had an RPK machine gun, each man had either a version of an AK-47 (the Hungarian AMD 65), or an AK with a Russian grenade launcher and some also carried handguns. There is nothing like flying across the desert at 70-80 kilometers-per-hour-with lots of guys with guns. Victor and I spent quite a bit of time during the bivouac talking with six or eight of them about just stuff--what did my tattoos mean; where did my cargo pants come from; why did I have three knives; what was my Gerber tool for? I showed them my very small MP3 player and a couple of them ended up listening to Black Sabbath at very high volume. One guy was smiling and started dancing in place to the music. Holy crap...heavy metal comes to the Afghanistan high desert.

One of the best parts of the day was when got to do some shooting. Victor and I had CZ 58s (the Czech AK) which performed flawlessly. The ABP set up a line of rocks about 70 meters out and Victor turned out to be "Dead-Eye Dick," much to the glee of the ABP. He just shot the shit out of every rock, which most of them missed. He got a standing ovation. When I told Tony, he commented, "So, they saw what you can do if you use the sights?" It seems that the ABP has a hard time learning to use their weapons correctly and not on full-auto all the time. Then we got to shoot a couple of Smith & Wesson Sigma 9mm pistols. Victor's worked really well; mine jammed every 3-4 bullets. Probably a weak spring, Tony thought, or maybe a bad clip. They fired their RPK machine guns, but it was a little disconcerting that all three of them kept jamming. Kind of made Victor and me wonder what they hell would happen if we got into a gun battle.

During this trip we got to see the results of two drug busts. One was 12 kilograms of both brown (not fully processed) heroin in chunks, and pure white heroin, called "crystal." The second day, the bust netted 13 kilograms. Today we learned that they made a huge bust of about 280 kilograms south of here in Farah Province. We also heard that one of the posts north of us on the border with Turkmenistan was overrun by bad guys and that the post commander was killed. This is in Badghis Province, which has recently seen a huge increase in anti-coalition forces. ISAF/NATO and the Afghan National Army are mounting an air assault into the area in the next few days to retake the post. There was also a bust in Herat that was about 400 kilograms, but before the ABP could get there with backup, the bad guys apparently bought off the ABP officers involved, got their dope back and the perps were released. There may have been involvement by high-ranking officers, as well, and it looks like the National Directorate of Security (NDS--like their CIA) is investigating. We hope so, anyway. The problem with the endemic corruption in Afghanistan is that it is even found in the ABP, I am sad to report. It's just the way it is and you accept it, hoping that the work you do will help the young, upcoming officers and NCOs want to do something different and help their country change for the better.

Two days before we first headed out into the desert, an ABP crew on patrol was hit by an IED. It was lucky that no one was killed. There were some slight casualties and the vehicle was apparently destroyed. They had no backup, which is a little hard to fathom, so it's a good thing that no one needed immediate trauma care, med-evac, or that there wasn't also an armed contingent that started shooting at them. It is unclear at this time if it was Taleban or drug guys, or someone with a grudge because someone in the ABP didn't pay them enough on a drug deal, or some other criminal activity.

Anyway, while we were on our way to the last border post on Friday, they took us to the IED site. I was able to examine the crater and we found what looked like shrapnel from an anti-tank mine and a 120mm mortar round--a "boosted" IED. Later in the day, while Victor and I were in the bivouac and Tony was up on the hill with the film crew, they brought me the initiation device. It was a very slick remote-controlled device tied to a 6-volt battery and using an electric blasting cap. The receiver for the remote was a simple black wire that had been stripped of its insulation for the last six inches, or so. The remote, itself, is contained in what appears to be a yellow plastic pill box, about six inches long, two inches wide and an inch high, that was epoxied together. When we go back to the brigade HQ on Monday, they are going to let me pry it apart to see exactly how it was made. I am assuming that the transmitter was something like a remote-controlled car or electric doorbell hand-held device. More on this later. I have included a picture.

Well, that's about it for now. Tomorrow is the New Year, here, so it is an official UN holiday. It is kind of a weird day in Herat because, in the past, there have been riots between the Sunni and Shi'ite over different beliefs about...who knows? Tony said that when he came back from the Brigade HQ yesterday afternoon, he saw a klot of Afghan NAtionbal Army troops being brought into town. I guess they were just being cautious because of the past problems and we're hoping that it's just a nice day for all Afghans as they celebrate their new year. We are going to try and make it to the ISAF base--Camp Stone--for a good coffee, maybe some pizza, the PX and the post office to finally pick up the 100 batteries I had sent from the States for night-vision goggles we give to the ABP. Enjoy the pictures and the video.

I FINALLY GET TO THE FIELD AND DO WHAT I WAS HIRED FOR

I finally made it out of the office in Kabul and into the field. Tony, Daud, Victor and I spent six days in Herat, a teeming city in the northwest about one-hundred kilometers east of the Iranian border. On day one, we met with General Milham, commander of the Zone 4 Afghan Border Police Brigade, and his command staff. It was an interesting meeting in that the General said—in front of his staff—that there were questions we were asking that he could not answer because there were people in the room he did not trust. In fact, the next day, as he, Tony and I walked along one of base’s roads, he had the two ABP officers guarding us move far enough back so that they could not overhear the conversation. It is, indeed, unfortunate, that the backstabbing and corruption that is endemic to most institutions in Afghanistan exists in the ABP to the point that it interferes with operational and tactical matters. After we returned to Kabul, we heard that General Milham was being replaced. We don’t know why, yet, but it may well be because of the comments he made during our meeting.

On day two, we saddled up at 7:30 AM and headed back to the brigade HQ. We picked up security in the form of four light trucks, each with 4-6 men armed with AK-47s and RPK light machine guns. With two trucks in front of us, two behind, we headed west on the road to Islam Qala at a high rate of speed. This road, built by the Iranians, is one of the best roads in the whole country and we referred to it as “Interstate 5.” Just east of Islam Qala, we picked up two more trucks with armed ABP officers from the battalion HQ. As soon as they joined us, we headed south, and then west, out into the desert toward one of the remote border posts on the border with Iran. The run across the desert was fantastic, despite the fact that the roads, in many places, were nothing more than glorified goat trails. We had to cross dried up wadis and river beds with caution since these are the kinds of locations where the enemy likes to plant IEDs. It was similar to off-roading in the high desert of Oregon, except that there was no sagebrush, junipers or tumble weed. In fact, there was very little vegetation at all.

Iran actually built twenty-four border posts for the Afghan Border Police. As we learned, however, the construction at the four bases we visited that the Iranians built was shoddy and the cement for the walls and courtyards was of low quality. Walls had substantial cracking and the courtyards were essentially breaking up so that dirt was exposed in large areas. I am assuming, like many aspects of life over here, that the Iranians were ripped off by a corrupt contractor. Why should they be treated any differently than the UN, NATO, or anyone doing work over here?

Over the course of the day, we visited five border posts and the battalion HQ at Islam Qala. The conditions at the border posts were bleak, particularly at the one built by the ABP. Aside from cracking cement, food quality and quantity was poor, sanitation essentially non-existent, weapons and ammunition were in poor shape. Generators were either broken or not being used because of a lack of fuel. We learned that the battalion and brigade HQs are hoarding fuel that is meant for the border posts and, no doubt, some of it is being sold for personal enrichment. This is an issue we will have to bring to the attention of our superiors in the UN, ABP HQ in Kabul and the Ministry of Interior, who has ultimate control of the ABP.

The men we met at the border posts were committed to their job, despite the Spartan and often poor conditions they lived under. At each post, the men were lined up in formation, with their weapons ready for inspection. Tony and I both went down the line at each post and asked the men how their conditions were and whether they were being paid on time, and how much pay they were receiving. It was hard to tell if they were being truthful since their commanders and the brigade Quick Reaction Force commander were with us when we were asking questions. At the battalion HQ in Islam Qala, we got a full tour of the base and they made lunch for us—chicken, beef ribs, rice and vermicelli, cukes and cabbage and the wonderful bread that is made everywhere in Afghanistan. We didn’t actually eat much of the meat because you do not know where it came from, whether it was fresh and if it had been properly cooked. It is a recipe for “Montezuma’s Revenge” unless you’re careful.

After lunch, we headed north to one last border post, this one constructed by the ABP and built out of reinforced mud and brick. It was in as poor shape as the ones built by the Iranians, probably worse. The generator appeared to not have been used in a long time, since it had a thick layer of dirt inside the cover on the entire engine and the fuel tank was virtually empty. When I examined the tank, I could see foreign particles, probably dirt, floating in the fuel. It was hard to understand how the men manning this post continued to serve, given the poor conditions, lack of good food and lack of decent hygiene and sanitation facilities. Yet, there they were, and most happy to have us inspect them. We returned to the brigade HQ and then back to our compound in Herat.

On Thursday, despite the fact that it was holiday celebrating the birth and death of the prophet, Mohammed, we went back to the brigade HQ to check on equipment we had stored in two Conex containers. In addition, when we met with General Milham that day, Tony asked if there would be time for me to give a class on IEDs and Ordnance Identification to the advanced training being done for a group of young NCOs. The General was quite happy to have this done since the trainees had never received any instruction in an area that was clearly a matter of life and death for them when out in the desert. The Russians had left millions of mines all over the place and the locations were barely marked in most cases, or not at all. Anti-Coalition Militias and traffickers also planted IEDS, largely made from the millions-upon-millions of rounds of unexploded the Russians left behind and all the munitions we had given the Mujahidin during the war against the Russians.

The inspection of our Conex containers was enlightening, to say the least. A lot of our equipment and MREs were missing. We found that Army mentors who were stationed at the ABP base had stored mattresses and bed components in one of our containers, having been given permission to do that by a former consultant from our office who is now gone (thank God) and who did not have the authority to turn over our space to the Army. It is clear UN policy that we have as little involvement with the military as possible, since it makes us look like we are in league with them and their policies, an image we cannot afford to have. It turned out that the same consultant had taken hundreds of boxes of MREs that were destined for ABP trainees in Nimroz Province, and authorized their use for Afghan workers during the elections last fall. This was not only unauthorized, but was probably, in my opinion, a criminal act since our donors had provided the money to purchase the MREs solely for the use of the ABP. It was also obvious that a lot of tactical equipment that had been purchased for the ABP was also missing.

Friday, we worked in the office in Herat since it was the Sabbath. On Saturday I gave a four-hour on IEDs and Ordnance Identification class and the young ABP officers who attended were extremely attentive, took lots of notes and asked a lot of very good questions. During a break, one of the students asked if I would answer a personal question and I said, “Of course.” He wanted to know why I had come to Afghanistan. I told him that I came because I believed that I could help them make their country a better place and that I could teach them subjects that would save their lives. I said that it was ultimately up to them to determine the best form of governance for their country and not up to us, the military or people like the US ambassador and Secretary of State. I also told him that he and his classmates were the future of their country and that it was up to them to change the status quo of the old men running the country now. He was very happy with my answer. Then he asked me if I thought that the US military came with the same thought in mind. I had to think about that for a minute, since I know from experience that many US soldiers seem to loathe the Afghan people because of their perceived “backward” cultural mores. I said, “In my country, everyone in the military is a volunteer. If you join, today, you know that you will eventually be in Afghanistan or Iraq and that both places are dangerous.” I think he was satisfied with my answer.

After my class, we unloaded both Conex containers since what we did have in them was completely unorganized and it was impossible to tell what we actually had. The ABP gave us seven or eight officers to help us, although three of them were completely lazy about doing any real work until Tony told them in a very loud voice that he would report them and to give their names to our interpreter. That solved that problem. We discovered that not only were we missing a huge number of cases of MREs—perhaps--as many as 700--but we were also missing hundreds of pairs of Nike Special Forces desert boots, night vision equipment (which is supposed to be carefully controlled), sleeping bags, winter coats and much more. We also had to reorganize a large supply of humanitarian assistance items like school supplies for children, clothing, sugar, flour, cooking oil and flour. It took the rest of the team most of the day to get everything reorganized and I joined for the last two hours after my class ended.

You probably heard about the attack in Kabul last week. We were in Herat when it occurred. One of the guest houses that were leveled by a suicide bomber was about three blocks from our work compound. Like the attack on January 18, the media seemed to focus on the fact that the attack had occurred and this showed that Kabul was not secure and the Taleban could come and go as it pleased. There is some truth to this belief, but so what? This is an insurgent war...what do they think is going to happen? And why should this ever mean that NATO/ISAF, or even the UN, mission here should be reduced or that we should simply leave now and not wait until 2011, or later, if necessary? Like the January 18 attack, the real story, here, was that the Afghan National Security Forces saddled up, did their job and did it without any US or NATO assistance. They killed the bad guys who didn’t blow themselves up, secured the area and reopened the city four hours after the fighting ended.

I can only hope that our government does not sell out the Afghan people like we did the Vietnamese, yet, that appears the way things are going. All of us are still trying to figure out why they announced, live on CNN and the BBC, that they were mounting the operation in Helmand at Marjah. They claim it was so the civilians who wanted to could leave the area ahead of the fighting. Guess what? Almost no one left. This seems to be complete bullshit and that the real reason was so that most of the Taleban would leave and ISAF/NATO could claim victory when the new civilian government was set up in Marjah. Yeah, most of the Taleban did leave, but guess what? They moved to other provinces. Now all of Helmand, Kandahar, Oruzgan and Nimroz provinces are off limits to almost all of the UN, including us. So thanks to NATO/ISAF fucking up, we cannot go to Nimroz to train the ABP and this means that the bad guys will continue to move huge quantities of opium and heroin over the border into Iran—as much as 10,000 kilos a week during peak season, which will be occurring during the next few months. Now they’ve announced that the next big operation will begin soon in Kandahar. Why don’t they hire the fucking Goodyear blimp and advertise with lights at night? One of the Army guys mentoring the ABP at Herat told us that the western and southwestern border, where most of the dope leaves the country, has the lowest priority for ISAF/NATO. Just goes to prove that the US military, just like Vietnam, is being run by a pack of fucking morons who have no clue what they’re doing, or what is most important. Killing the Taleban is not more important than stopping the flow of drugs. I don’t mean to get on a rant, but that’s my two cents. Oh, wait...I did mean to get on a rant.

ANOTHER WEEK, ANOTHER MOVE...AND OTHER STUFF

It is January 29. This has been a good and productive week, although there have been a couple of negative events. On Tuesday, January 26, there was a suicide bombing near Camp Phoenix, one of the US bases on Jalalabad Road, which I have previously mentioned is also known as “Bomb Alley.” The bomber was aiming for a US convoy and either set his device off too early, wasn’t close enough, or the bomb didn’t contain enough explosives. Eight US soldiers and six civilians were wounded and, thank God, no one was killed. Three of the wounded civilians were interpreters for the military.

Yesterday, another US convoy was traveling in the same area and thought a car was a bomber and opened fire. They killed a local, and very popular, Imam, who was traveling with his two young sons and, apparently, picking up another son from a religious school. The kids were not hurt. As always happens when these events occur, there are conflicting stories. The first story by the military is that the Imam got his car too close to the convoy. Local people who saw what happened say the Imam was sitting on a side road, engine idling, waiting for his son to exit the religious school when the convoy opened fire with no warning. The National Police called it “an accident.” Whether it was a legitimate response to a perceived threat after taking proper actions before opening fire (hand signals first, then warning shots), or a complete fuckup, is yet to be seen. In either event, it caused a large and noisy demonstration because this was a popular young preacher with two wives and ten kids. I will be following the investigation of this event with interest. It is hard to win over the Afghan people when we continue to kill them in this fashion, unless it appeared to be a clear threat and the Imam ignored the hand signals and warning shots, assuming they were given.

My friend, Tony, whom I have mentioned several times in previous posts, is finally here. I picked him up Monday, the 25th, at the Kabul International Airport and it was just great to see him coming across the parking lot. He was not at the office five minutes and had already jumped back into the fray as if he had not been gone for almost six months. All of the Afghans in the office were as glad to see him as I was and believe that he can make some things happen for our program that have been getting put off for a lot of reasons I don’t understand and that make no sense. Of course, my on-again, off-again move to Herat and our eventual move to Zaranj are two of those things.

In the meantime, Tony has already given me several assignments that concern making our program better and will provide needed information for the countries who donate funding for our program and the various projects we are involved in. So, my work on the training modules is on hold right now as I begin the process of researching the issues for the first project, which is putting together a Border Liaison Office project. This will bring our police officers and their leaders into close working relationships with their counterparts across the border in Iran and Pakistan. This is not a new idea for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, who provides assistance to similar projects in other parts of the world. It is now time for Afghanistan to implement a similar program and we have been given the task of making that happen.

I have been reading a ton of material that I was able to find on the web about this program as it has been instituted in other parts of the world, particularly on the borders of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, China and even Myanmar. There is also a cross-border program being developed between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, and then Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Nearly 20% of the opiates leaving Afghanistan are trafficked into Central Asia and most of that goes through Tajikistan. Their Drug Control Agency (the DCA) has been very successful in interdicting narcotics and UNODC is hopeful that a meaningful and productive program can also be established along the Afghanistan border with these Central Asian countries.

It’s been a week since I last wrote and now it’s February 6. A lot has happened. First—and, of course—last week Tony and I got the word that we had to move again. This is my sixth move in two months. We moved to the UNOCHA compound. UNOCHA is the main UN humanitarian affairs organization and their compound is way the hell out Jalalabad Road, the place I talked about, above, where the bombing and the shooting of the Imam occurred. ISAF and many of the other NATO forces have their big combat bases on Jalalabad Road, so their convoys are regular targets. You have to make sure that your driver stays far back from a convoy, or even two or three military vehicles traveling together. If traffic is good, it’s a thirty minute ride to the office. If traffic is bad—which is pretty regularly—it can take an hour or more. One day it took Collie two hours to get here. So, by and large, it totally sucks.

Although our new quarters are pretty nice, there are some problems. We are living in pre-fab containers that are about 20-x-10. They are new and we each have our own bathroom, which actually has good water pressure. So, taking a shower doesn’t take forever and you can wash the soap out of your hair. We have no internet or TV cable, yet, and they say it will be taken care of in 3-4 days, but Tony says that, in Afghanistan, that could mean a month. It is called, “Afghanistan Time.” The furniture is also new, but the lacquer hasn’t quite cured and when the heat is on, the fumes are pretty bad. Then there’s the power outlet situation. The way the container is laid out, the main power outlet is behind the bed and about six feet away from the desk. The microwave is located on a shelf above the desk, so that’s not near the plug, either. And, today, the management told us that they would not have power strips—or freaking sheets for the bed—for 3-4 days. It’s weird…everything is 3-4 days. We are going to the PX at Camp Eggers later to get sheets, some small rugs for the floor and power strips so we can plug things in. We also have to provide our own drinking water, which we got free each day when we were living at UNICA and when I was at the UNODC compound, there are water dispensers on each floor. What a pain in the ass, but, after all, it is Afghanistan.

Twice this week, Tony and I have met with someone from the Nimroz area about their needs. It was very interesting that the top three issues were agriculture, training and jobs for women and education for their children. They also want to do something about the drugs going through their area, which is why he came to see us. There have apparently been some other agencies—military and civilian—who have come into this area in the past, made a lot of promises and then either not followed through or just left without doing anything. There is an engineer there from some company with a contract to help them bring water from the Helmand River to their farming areas for irrigation. Apparently, the company’s security people told the engineer it “wasn’t safe,” so, according to the man we met with, he never leaves his office and has done nothing. I’m not sure what we can do about the water situation, but it is something I intend to look into.

Today is February 8. We are still without internet, cable and the other items at our new living quarters. I called the development manager and asked about the internet and the cable and was told—on the fourth day of being here—that it would be another 3-4 days before we have these things. I guess Tony may be right and that, on “Afghanistan Time,” this might mean a month which will really piss me off. I did find out today that, at least, we do have laundry service that is part of our rent, although they forgot to issue us the laundry bags which our clothes “must be in.” It has snowed for the last three days, off and on, and rained some, as well. This is good for the farmers, but, man, these guys cannot drive in this stuff and they don’t use snow tires or chains. The last two mornings, we have seen a number of vehicles off the road, crashed into phone poles and flipped over on their roofs. Our drivers, thank God, are relatively skilled at driving, even at high speeds, in the snow, so that’s good.

Yesterday, we got into a big fight with the head driver over being picked up at 6:00AM, instead of at the normal 7:15 time. If you take the 7:15 ride, you have to stop at another facility and pick up people there and, then, you’re screwed by rush hour traffic. Plus, you are sitting in traffic on Jalalabad Road at a time when military convoys could be pulling out, or coming back in. There are also as many as six people in the rig, which also makes you a target, especially in a vehicle that is marked “UN.” The ride yesterday took an hour. So, this morning, even though the driver was supposed to be here at six, he arrived at 6:20. Still, even after we stopped to pick up Collie at Green Village, we were at the office in thirty minutes. Tony went to the head of the drivers, Fida, and made it clear that we were to be picked up at six. Fida said we would be picked up at six tomorrow. We will see.

One of the tasks that Tony has given me is to do a weekly news briefing on stories that relate to what we do, or the Afghan Border Police and other National Security Forces. Or stories that I find of interest. This week, apparently, the Taliban are in “blow up an animal mode.” You couldn’t make this one up if you tried. Two days ago, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle drove his bike into a crowd at a dog fight and killed three people and wounded nine. Unless he was a member of the Taliban branch of the Animal Liberation Front, I am unclear of the tactical significance of bombing a dog fight. I am hoping that the dogs got away in the confusion. Then, today, the Afghan National Police stopped another suicide bomber on his donkey—I swear—carrying 200 kilograms of explosives. I am grateful they were on the watch and that the donkey is doing okay, although he now apparently has PTSD.

Well, that’s it for the last two weeks and I want to get this up. Don’t forget to get flowers, or something nice, for your significant other for Valentine’s Day. For the EOD people on the blog list, I made my reservations for the convention and the Memorial Foundation ball and dance. Looking forward to seeing all of you there. Duffy—no excuses this time!! Be there…or else.

STILL NO HIRAT AND MY CAT IS MISSING. ANOTHER VICTIM OF THE TALIBAN?

Today is January 18 and the Taliban hit downtown Kabul at 9:20AM. There were multiple suicide bombers and gunmen. Although they claimed to have gotten into government buildings and killed officials, they were lying out their fucking asses. They claimed to have gotten into the “Five-Star” Serena Hotel (where the rich people and diplomats stay)--more lies. They did damage another smaller hotel. In the end, all they managed to do was get a five-story galleria burned down when it was counter-attacked by police commandos and Afghan security forces. The fire destroyed the shops of dozens of hard-working Afghans trying to support their families. And they attacked an empty movie theater. They couldn't get near the government buildings and the bombers blew themselves up in the middle of the street. We watched the aftermath, live, on al Jazeera and the wreckage of the cars was littering a wide city avenue and not even close to any major buildings. It was interesting that the reporters from al Jazeera and Tolo (A Kabul station) were live, on the scene. The BBC guy was live, in the basement of the Serena Hotel. One of the al Jazeera guys was wounded.

I have to comment on the way this event was covered by the Western media. They virtually all reported that Kabul is, essentially, unsafe and that the Taliban can get in and out of town, at will. This one event, somehow, means we’re totally fucked and the war is lost. That was the gist of what I heard on the BBC, CNN, MSNBC and a number of print news web sites I looked at. This was so much bullshit and unworthy of serious consideration. First, I have been here for six weeks and this is the second bombing during that period. Even, today, despite our successes, there are multiple bombings in Iraq virtually every day. Second, and for crying out loud, there are about a gazillion roads going in and out of Kabul, not to mention the donkey-horse overland possibilities. What? Are they supposed to shut down every avenue of access and search every car, truck, bicycle, motorcycle, person, horse, donkey, cow and dog?

Third—and this is the real point—the true story that day was the combined actions of the Afghan security forces: the National Police, the Police Commandos and the Army. They saddled up, did their job and killed the bad guys—all of them who didn’t blow themselves up. Within four hours, security had been restored and two hours later the city-wide lock-down was lifted. If the FBI or Homeland Security had been running this operation, they'd still be talking about what to do and trying to negotiate. Let me make this clear—this was an all-Afghan planned, run and executed operation. They were on the alert because they developed intelligence that something was going to happen. Despite the bullshit claims of the Taliban on their web site, there was no NATO or ISAF involvement, other than the allied advisors assigned to the Afghan units. At an awards ceremony the next day, Gen. Bismullah Khan Mohammadi the Afghan Army Chief-of-Staff, said to the gathered solders, “"When we asked for three volunteers, ten of you stepped forward.” This is the story that should have been reported on.

Today, January 21, I heard Plan Number 9. I may be going to Hirat by the end of the week. They are waiting for the furniture, but the procurement request just went in. Yeah, this might happen in my lifetime. I am not holding my breath. I did, however, get to see pictures of the secure compound in Hirat (I have been misspelling it the Anglicized way). It is really nice and the room accommodations look really, really nice. The best part is that I was told that we have a full kitchen and I am looking forward to cooking, both for myself and my co-workers, if I ever get the fuck up there. We get lunch but are on our own for breakfast and dinner, which is okay with me. I just hope I get up there to take advantage of the nice digs. (Now it’s January 23. Plan Number 10. The trip to Hirat was called off, again—big surprise—and now they say maybe next Thursday. Yeah, when pigs fly out of my butt. And, oh, yeah, again…the kitchen, it turns out, is apparently only full of a microwave. No fridge, no stove. If I ever actually get there, I will “cure’ these deficiencies, much as we did in Vietnam).

I have been working on the training module for IEDs and Ordnance Identification and have really been enjoying it. I have found some great materials on the web, including numerous pictures of various improvised explosive devices of all shapes, sizes and types. For the Ordnance ID portion, I am using the pictures of the most likely munitions the ABP officers will run into and scanning them to my computer. Then I transfer the images into the PowerPoint presentation. I am developing a short section on explosives and explosive properties, just like they taught us in EOD School back in the old days. So, I am relearning about the properties of explosives like lead azide, mercury fulminate and tetrazene. When I was in EOD School for some totally unexplainable reason, I totally aced this part of the course of instruction. I say that because I managed to barely pass—I mean with a D-minus—biology and chemistry in high school.

Now it’s January 24 and another Sunday. We actually had a little rain last night, which was the first precipitation since I got here, other than at altitudes higher up. One of my colleagues just flew back from the North and said there was barely any snow, even on the highest peaks. This is not good news for the farmers. They need the snow-melt, just as we do in Oregon, and the Kabul River, which is a substantial body of water, is apparently too polluted to use for irrigation. If it isn’t one thing, it’s something else. I’m worried about the kitty—Andy Panda—because he hasn’t been around for four days. We thought we heard him, today, but when I went outside, he was not to be seen. Maybe tomorrow.

I have really been enjoying my new Facebook page and have been communicating regularly with several of my friends. I also just signed up for something called Classmates.com where I have reconnected with a couple of people I went o high school with. Man, graduation was almost 45 years ago. Great googly moogly!! My friend, Tony, who got me over here, will arrive at 9:30 tomorrow morning from Dubai. As of now, however, it appears that Aeroflot has managed to lose his luggage. This is totally bad news because he has my new supply of meds from the VA and a new Play Station for Daud’s son. There’s another Aeroflot flight due in before he leaves so, hopefully, the bags will show up. Mike and Kathy flew down to Zaranj for a day to see how things were coming along with the safe hotel we are supposed to live in. It appears that they still have not gotten the concertina wire up on the walls, so we have to wait for that to get taken care. All of our gear that was shipped from Hirat is there and the trucks that Rashid sent from here are also there. Now, if we could just get there. Hopefully, when Tony gets here, things will start to happen. Like I said, previously, everyone says he’s the guy “who gets shit done.”

I had to break down this week and buy a new laptop because the one I had was a total piece of crap. A friend had it built for me as a gift and the people who built it just didn't do a very good job. It was slower than whale crap, constantly locked up, I had to replace the keyboard before I left and they loaded it with Vista, the biggest pile of...well, you know. So, I bought a really nice Sony VAIO and this thing is sweet. Very fast, huge hard drive and lots of RAM, HD for movies, built in wireless and Bluetooth, motion-tracking camera and built-in microphone. Big 17.3" screen. Movies look and sound amazing and I can now get streaming TV and radio without it having to buffer every twenty seconds. I can finally see my friends, wife and son clearly and not in stop-motion. I bought it a local computer store and Daud went with me to make sure I didn't get ripped off. He even got them to knock $50 off and I got a really nice micro-speaker system for $10.

Well, I guess that’s about it for this week. Hope everyone is well and that you enjoy my posts, even with the occasional rant. If you have Skype and are not on my contact list, let me know what your Skype name is.

STILL WORKING AND WAITING TO PUFO TO HERAT

Today is January 15. Man, has this been a screwed up week. We were going to Herat, then we weren't. Then we were, then we weren't. Now we are...maybe. We have a place to live, which is at our office compound. They turned some of the offices in Herat into bedrooms, like they did, here, in Kabul (which I'll get to since it affected me). We are apparently waiting for the furniture to arrive--beds, dressers, whatever. If we go, I'll believe it when I'm there. Everett, one of the other law enforcement guys, is up there now with one of the interpreters, Mobeen. I don't think they're actually doing anything because Mike told me yesterday the equipment is still not on its way to Zaranj. I guess Everett is so pissed, and totally not wanting to be in Kabul, at all, for any reason, that he is going home on the 29th. Mike has also put in his "retirement" papers and will leave when his contract expires in April. I will be sorry to see him go. But he has a new house and bought a restaurant-pub in Northern Wisconsin. And he's been here for some time, as well as Kosovo before that. Kathy, whom I haven't met, yet, is due back Sunday.

But here's the best news. My friend, Tony, who got me into all this, has been cleared by UN New York, to return and will, hopefully, be leaving the States on Monday (found out today that he is leaving on Saturday the 23rd). They screwed around for 166 days about a medical issue and finally cleared him. Daud, Rashid and Asef, as well as myself, are very happy that he is coming back. When I mention his name to any of the Afghan staff, especially the guys who drive the armored rigs, they all say the same thing, "He is a very good man." I will be so glad to see him. I know that once he gets back, some shit will happen and happen quickly. Everyone says, "He is the guy who gets shit done." I know that if we can just get to the field we will accomplish some good things.

Made my weekly trip to Camp Eggers today. Picked up a great pair of binoculars at the bazaar that are so lightweight, they barely weigh anything. They also have infra-red blocking lenses. Also, found a great scarf for my friend, Greg, and bought another one--black and white (I look like Yasser Arafat)--for myself. Gotta look stylish every day and not wear the same one. I went to the PX to get my new Toshiba laptop, but because I didn't get there by Tuesday, as I had hoped, they sold the one they were holding for me. All because my pay didn't get into my account on time. Hopefully, it will come in this week and before I go to Herat, assuming we actually PUFO Kabul. By the way, you may have noticed that the archived posts from 2009 have been removed from the site. It was taking up too much room, so people will just have to be satisfied with 2010. Loaded up on chow in case we do go to Herat. We cannot eat at local restaurants and Mike says we only eat at the ISAF mess hall a couple of times a week because we don't want to wear out our welcome. I also picked up a nice refillable butane lighter and very cool leather and pewter ashtray at the bazaar. Weirdly enough, they have a dragon inscribed on them that looks very similar to the one on my right arm that will be my Afghanistan tat once I return and have my dates in-country put on.

On Wednesday, the 13th, I was informed that I had to move out of the UNICA1 compound and move into one of the new "hotel" rooms, here, at the work compound. I am, apparently, being considered "Herat Overload," which basically means that I'm not supposed to be here. Well, get me the hell out of here, already. There is such a room shortage in Kabul (and everywhere, apparently), that the hotel rooms are to be used by long-term contractors. So, I had to pack up all my crap and PUFO from UNICA. I was amazed at the fact that, when I came here, I had a suitcase and a duffel bag. By the time I got to my new room, I had them, as well as a plastic footlocker, a box full of food, my backpack was completely loaded and there were two large plastic shopping bags of crap. I'm not crazy about working and living in the same place, because then I tend to work even more than normal since the office is just down four flights of stairs and across the courtyard. We don't have any TV, yet, and the women down the hall have the only refrigerator. If I knew I was going to be here any length of time, I'd buy a fridge. Fortunately, my window sills are marble and the windows leak pretty good, so things stay cold enough. Especially my Red Leicester cheese.

I can watch streaming video on my laptop and have found a great web site with live BBC news. I tried CNN, but their stream download totally sucks. Plus, I have plenty of movies. If you haven't seen the Nicolas Cage movie, "Knowing," you should do so. Very creepy and with a bad/good ending. Also, I am in the middle of "Crank-High Voltage," with Jason Statham. Very, very strange and filmed at extremely high speed in many scenes with very excellent cinematography. If you don't like extreme violence (although hysterical in most places because it is so insanely ridiculous), don't see it. I picked up "Angels and Demons," today, at the PX and will start that when I'm done with the other one.

I have started working on two new training modules. I am teaching myself about "Security Operations," which includes, roadblocks, checkpoints and cordon and search operations. By the time I'm done, here, I'll be an infantryman. I also started putting together my module on IEDs and Ordnance Identification. In both cases, I have found some spectacularly excellent materials on the web. My friend, Gary Huber, just sent me a great video of some Taliban guys blowing themselves up while trying to plant a booby-trapped 155 artillery projectile in a road. They were being watched from the air by a chopper crew, or close air, when the thing went off. You can hear the pilots going, "Holy, crap, dude, did you see that?" I will use this as a training film for the border police since it perfectly illustrates why they should not try to disarm these things, themselves, and to call for an EOD team or Engineer mine-clearing team.

When I was leaving the UNICA compound, I said my goodbyes to the guys I had met with the UN close protection teams. Andy, a South African, who I think is kind of the boss, asked me if I would give them a class on IEDs and Ordnance ID issues, so I said, of course, and told them to arrange this with the head of our security. I hope this transpires because it is always good when UNODC connects with other UN units in a professional, positive way. Plus, I was flattered they asked me. One guy is from Thailand and he is the biggest Thai I have ever met. I cannot remember his name, but he always addressed me as, "Sir." I had to explain to him that I had been a sergeant and he didn't have to call me sir. Then he said, "It is a sign of respect because you are older and you are here." I think it was a compliment. I thought that was pretty cool, but now he does call me "Sergeant."

And now, the weekly report on Andy Panda, the kitty. He comes every day now, at least twice and sometimes three times. He has become, I am afraid, a "Beef Jerky Junky," or a "BJJ," as we counter-jerky people say. If I go outside to smoke, he always comes over and rubs against me and purrs and makes a lot of noise. If I knew I was going to be here awhile, I would take him to the vet for shots and "fixing." He also has a little mange, so he needs some medicine. If I leave, I will worry about him because no one else here really gives a shit about one more feral cat. Plus, he'll probably go into jerky withdrawal. My Afghan colleagues think I'm a little nuts for taking care of him. Daud asked me why I was doing this and I asked him, "Did you know that the ancient Egyptians always buried cats with their Pharaohs?" He asked me why and I said, "Because they believed that cats were the eyes to the soul." Andy has these extreme green eyes and they are piercing. I wonder...

I ended up signing up for Facebook because couple of friends asked me to be their "friends." Then I ended up doing my own Facebook page. Well, it turns out to be pretty cool because, out of the blue, an old friend from law school and further on, saw me on a mutual law school bud's page. It was very cool reconnecting and I hope maybe I'll hear from other folks from the distant past. Katherine and I have yakked back and forth today, exchanged stories about our kids (although she has me outnumbered five-to-one). She really helped me out (along with her then husband, Reggie) when I quit practicing law and ended up in Northern Michigan. Saved my life, in some ways. Unfortunately, Reg passed away soon after they attended my wedding with Mona and we had moved to Oregon. Anyway, if you're reading this, Katherine, thanks for the Facebook jingle.

There's really not much else to say this week. So I'll end by adding a few new pictures of the kitty.

GETTING READY TO MOVE--FINALLY

It is January 5 and I am closing in on my first month, here. It was another fantastically beautiful day--57°, lots of sun and totally blue skies. Andy Panda came to visit me when I was sitting outside having a smoke, being raucous and, clearly, wanting food. I had regular Tillamook beef jerky for him today; you know, the hard, stringy kind, not like the tender beef steak nuggets he scarfed up yesterday. At one point, he got a piece stuck on a tooth and was batting at his mouth until he got it loose. It was too funny. He totally annihilated the hard variety and, then, like yesterday, followed me around whenever I came outside, purring and meowing to beat the band. Ah, the little things in life that are wonderful and, yet, make no sense, at the same time.

Today we found out that we a have small problem in moving to our base in Herat. When there, the team stays at the Five Star Hotel. It’s not a five star hotel; it’s just the name of the place. Probably gets people in there because they think it’s a five star. Anyway, on December 18, 2009, the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Carl Eikenberry, announced in Heart that our hotel was going to be the new temporary site of the US Consulate. Like they say on South Park, “Oh, my God, they killed the Five Star!! You bastards!!” Now, we’re looking for a new home and hoping that our security people will approve it. As I said in my last post, I’d like to get out of here and get to the actual training of the Afghan Border Police.

The ABP lost two men today in a shootout with drug traffickers in Kunar Province in Eastern Afghanistan on the Pakistan border and close to the Federally Assisted Tribal Area, a known stronghold of the Taliban and al Qaeda. I mentioned in the last post that the Iranians lost eleven the other day. The traffickers are fighting just as hard to keep their turf as are the Anti-Coalition Militias…it’s s like s second fucking war going on inside the first war. Plus, the Marines, in a joint operation with the Afghan Counter-Narcotics Police (who are trained by another group in our office), seized 4,100 pounds of opium in Helmand Province. And 256 pounds of heroin was seized in another operation. (As an aside, on January 8, the Marines and the Afghan National Police seized 5,100 pounds of opium, 1,100 pounds of opium paste, 50 pounds of heroin, guns, munitions and explosives. I am glad the President gave the military the authority to get involved in this "other war).

Over the past few days, I have been redoing the training module for “Tactical Convoy Movement,” a subject of which I knew nothing about before I started this project. So, I have had to teach myself everything I will teach the ABP trainees. Thank goodness for Google and the Chrome search engine. Hey, Microsoft, if you’re listening: “Google Chrome kicks your ass. It is ten times faster than your ‘new’ slow piece of crap, Internet Explorer 8. It finds more precise sites than IE could ever locate in a year.” So much for a short rant. I was fortunate to be able to locate a number of excellent documents, including several military tactical convoy manuals and papers written by soldiers who have actually led convoys in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When I first looked at the convoy training module, I noticed right away that whoever wrote it clearly did so with the thought in mind that he—and only he—knew how to fill in the blanks left by the short, cryptic statements in each particular section. For instance, the page on the parts of a convoy merely said, “Convoy Sections,” and, then, “March Column,” The Serial” and “The Unit.” There was no explanation or definition as to what each of these was.

My feeling was that any trainer picking up this module, even a dumb ass like me, should be able to know exactly what things were and be able to teach the course. I also realized that many ABP trainees cannot read or write and although you can teach by speaking, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” So I found pictures showing the sections of a convoy and another one showing the elements of a convoy. I know that doesn't make sense, but they are two different things. I also found one that shows what vehicles are in the “trail”—wreckers, fuel truck, bob-tails, and the like.

It is January 9, and I have finished the training module on “Tactical Convoy Movement.” I am now working on the module for “Security Operations, Roadblocks and Checkpoints.” Once, again, I know virtually nothing about this topic so I am teaching myself the subject matter and rewriting, essentially, the entire manual. Yesterday, we went to Camp Eggers for our weekly shopping and eating trip. I also went to the barber and got my hair back to my usual buzz cut. It is so much easier to take care of and I no longer need to use conditioner. It wasn’t as nice as the barber at my hotel, but it was relaxing, nonetheless, and I almost nodded out in the chair. At the PX, I picked up a plastic trunk to store things in while I am in Herat and Zaranj since I will not need to have my suit, extra down jacket, dress shoes and shirt, ties, suspenders, etc. You never know when you’re going to an embassy shindig, so I brought these things with me. No embassy shindigs happen in Zaranj and we will be gone from Herat by the time the new consulate opens.

Now it’s “Change 43.” It turns out that our information that the US Embassy would not take over the Five Star Hotel in Herat until March 31, and that we could live there until then, was not entirely accurate. While it is true that they will apparently not physically move in until March 31, they have already taken it over and started renovating it into the temporary consulate. So now we’re looking for a new place to live and people are supposed to be heading up there tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what happens by tomorrow morning. I have started packing the things I won’t take into my new plastic trunk and will have to make decisions about how much and what clothing I take so I have more room for my food supplies. I’m taking enough with me to get through the first week until I get the lay of the land and scout out the local grocery stores.

Today is January 10 and I have now been here for a month. I have to say that it has gone very quickly and even though I have not been doing what I was hired to do, I have enjoyed the work of rewriting the training modules, representing my agency at NATO/ISAF meetings and doing whatever tasks I am given. Our finance people, who were a little confused about where and how to send my pay, finally got things figured out and the request went in today to deposit my first check directly into my account at Standard Chartered Bank, an Indian bank located, here, in Kabul. Hopefully, the funds will hit my account tomorrow, Tuesday at the latest, I will take care of my bills, send money home, get cash, and head for Herat. I will also go to the PX and pick up my new laptop, a very nice Toshiba, since the one I have now is a complete piece of crap and has been nothing but trouble ever since I got it.

Well, that’s it from Kabul and, hopefully, next Sunday’s blog will be from Herat. It looks like the weather in Heart is even better than here, with temperatures ranging from 57 – 67 over the next five days. Yippee skippee.

ANOTHER WEEK GONE AND A NEW YEAR

It is New Years' Eve at 6:29PM in Kabul. I never would have thought, a year ago at this time, that I would be where I am, doing what I'm doing. Right now, I'm watching "Indiana Jones and the Search for the Holy Grail," somewhat appropriate given the part of world I am in. I'm not sure what I'll do later tonight, but I imagine some of the others who live, here, at UNICA1, will gather at the bar to ring in 2010. I will probably join them, at least for awhile.

Today was another day at the office, working on projects for the Afghan Border Police and hoping that we get to one of our bases to actually start training ABP officers, sooner, rather than later. Two days ago, we got the word at the office that we were moving from the fourth floor of the main building to a pre-fab trailer on the ground. They are going to turn the top two floors into living quarters because there is a scarcity of safe hotels in Kabul. Our security has very high standards and they are extremely careful when it comes to our safety. Holy, crap, what a pain in the ass the move was. We had to move our desks, filing cabinet (with all the files inside), all of our books, written materials, computers and other hardware and all the other things that have accumulated in the office over the past five years. Up and down, up and down, up and down...four stinkin' flights of stairs. The trailer is much smaller than our office and with five of us in there, it is crowded to the point where we have decided it is not healthy. Breathe in oxygen, breathe out carbon dioxide. We had to open the window today, despite the chill in the air (it is definitely getting colder), because it was so stuffy. It's still okay, though, because I really love the four Afghan guys I am working with. I know I have said it before, and I will probably say it again before this journey is over, but they are a good and dedicated group. I can only hope that this New Year brings some modicum, even if slight, of peace to their ravaged country.

Now it’s 10:41AM, January 1, 2010. Another year gone and a new one has begun. It is the Sabbath, here, so I am off and just hanging out in my room, working on this blog entry and one of our training modules that I am rewriting. I will be going grocery shopping this afternoon with Kelly who has worked for the UN for twenty years in one war zone after another, East Timor and Sudan, to name two. I admire her and all the others I have met who have made the decision to work for an organization that, despite its well known problems, has devoted itself to trying to assist people in the worst imaginable places and situations. It seems interesting to me that there are certain elements in the US who oppose the UN because of bullshit and usually false claims that they are anti-American (our entire non-Afghan team are all Americans), they don’t pay their bills and the rest of the right-wing crap put out by these people—none of whom, as far as I know, has ever lifted a finger to make the world better in even a small way. Okay, so maybe the UN doesn’t pay its bills on time, like rent for their headquarters in New York. Instead, it is funding sixteen peacekeeping missions around the world, many in dangerous, war-ridden areas like Darfur, the Congo, Haiti, Timor, the India-Pakistan border, Kosovo, Lebanon and the Sinai. Then there’s the insane right-wing who say the UN is part of the “New World Order,” who want to enslave us, the black helicopters, secret detention camps and the rest of the delusional shit they preach.

I talked to Mona last night when it was Midnight, here, and again just now at Midnight in Oregon. It was so cool to be able to talk—for free with Skype—and see each other on video. Several of you reading this also have Skype and we either have talked, or hopefully, will in the future. If you want to do this, go to skype.com and download the program. It is free and if you have a video camera, we can video. If you do have Skype, look for my contact info as Stuart A. Steinberg, or VietnamEOD. I just returned from the grocery store. Today, we went to a new place—Karimi’s Supermarket. It was wonderful with many more choices than Finast and Spinney’s, where I had previously gone (in addition to the PX). In fact, the Finast store, which is very close to my living compound, is closed because of a fire last week that caused a gas explosion and blew out all the windows. At Karimi’s, I was able to pick up instant espresso and Coffemate in individual packets, Ruffles (with ridges), peaches and pineapple in juice, not syrup like they have at Finast. I got two one-pound bags of Tillamook Country Smoker (from good ol’ Oregon) beef jerky, Walker’s chocolate chip shortbread from Scotland, Dinty Moore beef stew and turkey breast with smashed pertaters and gravy. They’re good cold, but I am hoping to pick up a microwave when Finast reopens. But here’s the best find of all—I got two eight-ounce packages of Red Leicester (pronounced “Lester”) cheese, some of the best cheddar in the world. It's from England. I will have some later on my Jacquet Francais Toast. It is made in France and is like thin pieces of golden brown toast.

Today was beautiful—blue skies, bright sun, 51°. More of the same tomorrow. It is concerning to my Afghan friends that there has been no snow yet, nor any rain. It is needed, like in Central Oregon, for irrigation and will mean a bad crop year if we don’t getting some. When I flew to Mazar, as I previously blogged and show in a picture, there is snow everywhere once you go to higher elevations. Kabul is at 5,876 feet and you would think there would have been snow by now. I think it is due to the unusually warm weather, including temperatures of the high-twenties and low-thirties at night. The humidity has also been very low—34% today. It is too bad that with all the humanitarian dollars flowing in, here, someone has not figured out how to bring water from all the snow in the mountains at higher elevation. The Kabul River flows near the city and typically swells in size from snowmelt. My guess is that if there is no snow, here, there is less snow at the higher elevations which feed the rivers. There is the Kabul River, but I am assuming that it is so polluted that it is not used for irrigation.

Today is January 3. We made our regular trip to Camp Eggers to the PX, but found when we got there that the bazaar was Friday. I have to develop a better intelligence network since Collie’s guy at Eggers--Fouad, the phone dude--gave us bad intel. The weather was spectacular—it must have been close to 60 at one point and, even now, at 5:30PM, it is 48--blue skies and lots of sun. I went with Kelly and her friend, Amani, who is Palestinian. She works for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. She told me she was staying at the Serena Hotel and, apparently, was unaware of the fact that the Serena has been hit several times by rockets on the ground floor—where her room is. I told her to request a room on a higher floor and, fortunately, she was aware that the hotel has a lot of empty rooms right now. She was very appreciative of my advice.

Today, I was very happy to find that the PX not only had more of the Tillamook Country Smoker steak nuggets, but they had the peppered kind, which are my favorite. Jennifer, a friend in Corvallis, guilt-tripped me about buying them all the last time, so I only bought five bags. I got some more warm socks and t-shirts and a very nice black hoodie that zips. Also, Kelly gave me a nice little table for my coffee pot and toaster. I looked at a microwave at the PX, but it must be ten years old because it weighed a freaking ton. I will go into the city this week and look for something light-weight. We all went to the Green Beans Coffee Shop and sat in the sun drinking good coffee and chatting. Then, we went to some of the little native shops on the base and I bought another scarf, while Kelly and Amani looked at rugs and fur coats. . I was looking for one for my friend, Greg, but could not find anything that was earth-tone in color. Amani had to leave, so Kelly and I went to the Thai restaurant. It was quite good. I had wonderful crispy spring rolls and nuclear Thai chili sauce for dipping. I also had a chicken salad with lots of little pieces of crispy chicken cooked in a hot sauce, with cashews, slivers of ginger and green and red cabbage. I could not resist and had my first Coke since getting here—it was great. It’s amazing how you appreciate some of the weirdest things from back home. Maybe I can find a Big Mac. It is interesting that none of the American fast-food places have set up here--yet.

I heard, today, that the Brits lost an EOD man on New Years’ Eve. This dampened my holiday spirit and reminded me about how dangerous this place is. This is the third British EOD man killed in the past two months. Of course, it was in Helmand Province and he was part of a Counter-IED Team. For you EOD folks, and those of you reading this that are not ex-EOD, we have lost 79 EOD people in Iraq and Afghanistan, including two women. In the Vietnam War, we lost 37. It is a sobering thought. Today, the Iranian border police had eleven of their counter-narcotics border police killed in a shootout with drug traffickers near the Iranian border with Afghanistan. It was across the border from one of our Afghan Border Police outposts. Since 1979, the Iranians have lost 3,300 men fighting narcotics traffickers. It appears they take this war against opium product seriously and I respect them for that.

Well, that's about it for this week. One more thing. I sent out an email about the orphanage in Mazar-i-Sharif and the fact that I am trying to raise funds to help 160 children stay warm this winter. So far, people have offered $2,050. I need to raise another $5,800 to buy winter coats and gloves, thermal underwear and warm socks. I will figure out how to deal with the shipping once I know we have enough for the clothing. Others are helping with firewood and coal and trying to winterize the orphanage. I am hoping that Eveline, who works for the UN Aid Mission, will be sending me some pictures of the orphanage and the kids. Hope to hear from others of you who want to help. Later.