From the Sand Pit it's freezing here. I'm sitting on hard, cold dirt
between rocks and shrubs at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains , along
the
Dar 'yoi Pomir River , watching a hole that leads to a tunnel that leads to
a cave. Stake out, my friend, and no pizza delivery for thousands of
miles.
I also glance at the area around my ass every ten to fifteen seconds to
avoid another scorpion sting. I've actually given up battling the
chiggers and sand fleas, but the scorpions give a jolt like a cattle
prod. Hurts like a bastard.. The antidote tastes like transmission fluid,
but God bless the Marine Corps for the five vials of it in my pack.
The one truth the Taliban cannot escape is that, believe it or not,
they are human beings, which means they have to eat food and drink water.
That requires couriers and that's where an old bounty hunter like me comes
in handy. I track the couriers, locate the tunnel entrances and storage
facilities, type the info into the handheld, shoot the coordinates up to
the satellite link that tells the air commanders where to drop the
hardware.
We bash some heads for a while, then I track and record the new movement.
It's all about intelligence. We haven't even brought in the snipers
yet. These scurrying rats have no idea what they're in for. We are but
days away from cutting off supply lines and allowing the eradication to
begin.
I dream of bin Laden waking up to find me standing over him with my
boot on his throat as I spit into his face and plunge my nickel-plated
Bowie
knife through his frontal lobe. But you know me, I'm a romantic. I've said
it before and I'll say it again: This country blows, man. It's not even a
country. There are no roads, there's no infrastructure, there's no
government. This is an inhospitable, rock pit shit hole ruled by eleventh
century warring tribes. There are no jobs here like we know jobs.
Afghanistan offers two ways for a man to support his family: join the
opium trade or join the army. That's it. Those are your options. Oh, I
forgot, you can also live in a refugee camp and eat plum-sweetened, crushed
beetle paste and squirt mud like a goose with stomach flu, if that's your
idea of a party. But the smell alone of those 'tent cities of the walking
dead' is enough to hurl you into the poppy fields to cheerfully scrape
bulbs for eighteen hours a day.
I've been living with these Tajiks and Uzbeks, and Turkmen and even a
couple of Pushtuns, for over a month-and-a-half now, and this much I can
say for sure: These guys, all of 'em, are Huns... actual, living Huns..
They LIVE to fight. It's what they do. It's ALL they do. They have no
respect
for anything, not for their families, nor for each other, nor for
themselves. They claw at one another as a way of life. They play polo with
dead calves and force their five-year-old sons into human cockfights to
defend the family honor. Huns, roaming packs of savage, heartless beasts
who feed
on each other's barbarism. Cavemen with AK-47's. Then again, maybe I'm
just cranky.
I'm freezing my ass off on this stupid hill because my lap warmer is
running out of juice, and I can't recharge it until the sun comes up in a
few
hours. Oh yeah! You like to write letters, right? Do me a favor,
Bizarre. Write a letter to CNN and tell Wolf and Anderson and that
awful, sneering, pompous Aaron Brown to stop calling the Taliban 'smart.'
They are not smart. I suggest CNN invest in a dictionary because the word
they are looking for is 'cunning.' The Taliban are cunning, like jackals
and hyenas and wolverines. They are sneaky and ruthless, and when
confronted, cowardly.
They are hateful, malevolent parasites who create nothing and destroy
everything else. Smart. Pfft. Yeah, they're real smart.
They've spent their entire lives reading only one book (and not a very
good one, as books go) and consider hygiene and indoor plumbing to be
products of the devil. They're still figuring out how to work a Bic
lighter.
Talking to a Taliban warrior about improving his quality of life is like
trying to teach an ape how to hold a pen; eventually he just gets
frustrated
and sticks you in the eye with it.
OK, enough. Snuffie will be up soon, so I have to get back to my hole.
Covering my tracks in the snow takes a lot of practice, but I'm good at
it.
Please, I tell you and my fellow Americans to turn off the TV sets and
move on with your lives. The story line you are getting from CNN and other
news agencies is utter bullshit and designed not to deliver truth but
rather to keep you glued to the screen through the commercials. We've
got this one under control The worst thing you guys can do right now is sit
around analyzing what we're doing over here, because you have no idea what
we're doing, and really, you don't want to know. We are your military, and
we are
doing what you sent us here to do.
Saucy Jack
Recon Marine in Afghanistan
Semper Fi
"Freedom is not free...but the U.S. Marine Corps will pay most of your
share".
(The above may or may not be authentic... sounds plausible)
Biggest bunch of bullshit I've seen in a while Steve but it's perfect for
jerk off's like yourself.
I spent an hour on the phone last week with two actual Marines in
Afghanistan with the 4th LAR.
Did you tell them how much you hate America and want it changed into a
bankrupt Socialist welfare state? Would these two Marines shoot you on
sight? Or, would they not waste ordinance and just K-Bar you in the neck?
Or, would they just snap you in half? Real Marines don't like
Neo-Socialists.
No, It's difficult to maintain a head of steam. I'm a very jovial guy most
of the time and only poke those I know will have a melt-down in the little
boxes they live in. I'll just stick to a couple of NGs where I have the
worst idiots plonked.
That's hard to believe. Is it as true as what you wrote above?
You're the one melting down. How long before you start telling stories
about fending off 2' centipedes and bench pressing 800 pounds?
Post it anywhere you like, but it will be still be total crap.
Wayne
They haven't updated the page yet.
SgtMaj Cottle and his driver, Lance Cpl. Rick Centanni, were KIA a month
plus ago.
They were both fine men, good Marines and a credit to both their country and
the uniform.
The IED's in Iraq were generally 20 pounders, #40 tops. They are about #100
in Afghanistan.
Someone recently said,
"Regarding the behaviors I'm objecting to, I find nothing to tolerate
in open calls for threatening or killing people whose politics you
don't like."
Easy, now, I couldn't resist teasing you a little here. :
H&S Co. is doing interdiction missions, they are hard against the Pakistan
border, from Khan Neshin and they will be rotating back to the States
shortly.
It's hot - 120 F - during the day and there is a lot of dust.
LOL
They have two seasons, hot blowing dust followed by rain and mud. That
varies depending on where, exactly, you are.
The mountains are another matter and don't count. It's no man's land.
The regular Afghan Army is an excellent, well equipped and disciplined
fighting force. As good as there is.
The general population are just like people everywhere. They are poor but
care about the same things anyone does.
Food on the table and the well being of their children and so forth. They
are friendly, approachable and generous.
Like all people anywhere caught in a gang war, they normally keep their
heads down and go about their daily business as best they can.
They would like for things be calm and absent that they try and stay out of
the way, unnoticed.
The district/regional/national police, the politician's, and many of the
local militia's are as corrupt as can be, gangsters really. Afghanistan is
little more than an organized criminal enterprise. Nothing has changed in
this regard since the last super power visited Afghanistan. This guy Karzai
is just our "Don" and there is little reason to think that change is in the
air.
Beyond that there isn't much I could, or would, have to say.
Well, maybe just one thing.
I'll be glad to see our guys home, and that's what they are. Our guys, not
mine.
They do live in snowy areas including Afghanistan. They go dormant
and don't hunt during cold conditions, but they can come out of
dormancy quite quickly. (see cite) If this guy sometimes has a
working lap warmer and the scorpions can sense that, he may well
attract them and get nailed periodically as looking like a food
opportunity.
>
>>
>>>
>>>> Steve B wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> (The above may or may not be authentic... sounds plausible)
>>>>
>>>> Biggest bunch of bullshit I've seen in a while Steve but it's perfect >>>> for
>>>> jerk off's like yourself.
>>>>
>>>> I spent an hour on the phone last week with two actual Marines in
>>>> Afghanistan with the 4th LAR.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> John R. Carroll
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Did you tell them how much you hate America and want it changed into a
>>> bankrupt Socialist welfare state? Would these two Marines shoot you on
>>> sight? Or, would they not waste ordinance and just K-Bar you in the >>> neck?
>>> Or, would they just snap you in half? Real Marines don't like >>> Neo-Socialists.
>>
>>They'd probably be smart enough to shoot you first, Tawwwwwwwm. You'd look
>>like a puckered 10-ring.
>
> Someone recently said,
>
> "Regarding the behaviors I'm objecting to, I find nothing to tolerate
> in open calls for threatening or killing people whose politics you > don't like."
>
> Easy, now, I couldn't resist teasing you a little here. :
I don't think a lot civilians understand how deployed military personnel see
their world.
Especially not civilians of the arm chair warrior variety. I don't know a
single serving individual that would put together the garbage in Steve B's
post that was attributed. "Saucy" Marine ought to have been placed under
arrest and stood a court.
That's sort of what ticks me off, that someone might actually believe this
junk. It's the ravings of an insane person and I take offense to things that
portray any group as insane or otherwise defective, mentally or otherwise.
It's particularly offensive when done in the "Spirit" of "Patriotism".
Feh
I've always believed the world would be a better place if every American did
a tour in the armed forces that included a period of deployment on foriegn
soil, not country club service. I still believe this is true.
I single out American's because no other country on the planet can deploy
nearly as large or potent a force as America can without considering the
immediate consequences all around. OUr President can just pull the trigger
and figure it all out later. We are truly unique and so have a genuine
responsibility - to ourselves - to act in a reasoned and considered manner.
We also have the luxury of pausing to think before we act and we ought to
start excercising that luxury. Experience in uniform would insure that our
actions were guided by a little wisdom. I can't imagine Dwight Eisenhower or
Harry Truman ordering the attack on Iraq in 2003. I also can't imagine
either of those two letting up at Torah Bora.
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