Eight Years Later

As the eighth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks takes place, it’s important to understand why the struggle started at ground zero in New York City and extended to Afghanistan and Iraq still takes place. First of all, your military is not losing in Afghanistan. Anyone who says that doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Who controls the high ground in this country? We do. Who moves at night and hides in the shadows? They do. We’re simply not winning to as high a degree as before. That’s it. If you really think war is as seamless and thought out as the massive invasions everyone watched live on TV in both Afghanistan and Iraq, you have to grasp the full spectrum of what we deal with now. In Afghanistan, an enemy that would at one time come out and fight us like men, now hide from us and rely on suicide attacks and IED’s to do their damage. Any time they meet us in a combat situation outside those two realms, they lose. Plain and simple. Our work isn’t winning the actual fight; it’s denying them the two aforementioned comfort zones. So don’t think for a minute we’re running and hiding from these cowards, it’s exactly the opposite.

The events of 9/11 made us painfully and intimately aware of the struggles and dangers of the places we had deemed “the third world”. Mass acts of violence that don’t discriminate against civilians and military targets, or women and children, terrified us. Though attacks against civilians had become commonplace in flashpoints like Chechnya, Syria and Afghanistan, never had it been seen in the grandiosity of 9/11. What was more painfully obvious in the following days, was the fact that had we done more in the years leading up to 9/11, the attacks that cost nearly 3,000 civilian lives and almost 6,000 military lives in the subsequent military operations, could have been avoided completely. Had we only paid more attention. It was on that day that America essentially fractured and united at the same time. United in mourning and the common goal of recovery, while bringing those responsible to justice. Fractured in how to go about bringing the culprits to justice and the severity of the American response. I’ve always said and continue to maintain that President Bush’s response was the best possible answer. Years from now, when the real history is written of these events, people will appreciate the restraint it took that man to not hit our enemies with the fury of God’s own thunder. It’s how everyone felt, warmonger and peace activist alike. The response was calculated and deadly efficient. Only the mismanagement of the war in Afghanistan the following years put us where we are now. That initial action was spot on.

For as much as 9/11 is now about America at war, we must never forget the human price that was paid and continues to be paid. The real tragedy of the day isn’t found in planes hitting buildings, but the chairs at dinner tables that remain forever empty. It’s children who lost parents, parents who lost children and lives pointlessly shattered in ways most of us can’t begin to imagine. It’s people running into buildings as unspeakable death and destruction took place around them, so they could do something, anything to help people they didn’t know, or would never see again. It’s about people with nothing in common flying flags in front of their homes in a show of pride and solidarity. Most importantly, it’s about coming together in the darkest hours of our young nation to show that good triumphs over evil, as long as decent people refuse to remain silent in the face of what they know to be wrong. As much as we disagree on certain things, when it came down to it we put all that aside, and as a nation pulled together. Without that, 9/11 would have been successful in destroying us; with it the acts only strengthened our resolve to refuse to live in fear, or live in a world where fear is used to silence the innocent.

Today we mourn, not for what was, but for all that could have been.

Until next time,

-DM

Filling Gaps

Ok, so I lied about posting much more now that I have the internet. The bottom line is really that not much changes here on a day-to-day, or week-to-week basis. Days blur together and there isn’t much to differentiate one day to the next. That’s probably a good thing though as far as making the time pass. This is probably why professional writers don’t write about themselves as much as they write about subjects, or other people. Your life isn’t interesting to you when you’re busy living it.

The weather is changing in that it’s cooled down considerably; the high the other day was 94. Sounds hot, but when you’re used to 114-120, it’s almost pleasant outside at 94 degrees. When it cooled down at night under 70, I was freezing and needed three blankets on my bed to sleep at night. Due to Ramadan business has slowed some in some aspects and sped up in others. The thinking is that in anticipation the bad guys threw everything and the kitchen sink at us when we got here to try and deter us. Truth or wishful thinking? Time will tell. I don’t think they’re expecting us to stay, so they’re in for a rude awakening.

As you might have seen in the news, our brigade has lost some soldiers. I can’t begin to tell you how it feels. The part I have the hardest time getting over is the absolute waste of life is exposes you to. Everything these people have ever done; every day, every memory and every ounce of effort that went into making that person what they were is abruptly ended. It’s just a waste; that’s the only word that really comes to mind. As you try and go about your daily work, it’s hard to not think of the family and friends who are having their worlds turned upside down. If we lost a single person in this tour it’d be one person too many, so multiple losses hit especially hard.

With the Department of Defense no longer publicizing enemy losses due to the fact that our losses versus theirs is longer an indication of how the war is going, they should have also considered that in a war that is growing more and more popular, the morale of the people on the ground and the common mind at home see consolation when they see in the man to man fight at least, we are supremely superior. When you consider the situation, it’s hard to believe how superior we are when they come out and face us. We win where we fight, plain and simple. Even still, it is no consolation to the people who have lost loved ones in this war, or any war.

Until next time,

-DM

Update

Another one down here in Afghanistan. It’s obviously been awhile since my last post, so I guess I’ll do a little recap of the comings and goings of the past few weeks.

Officially, really not much has gone on. We’re beginning to make our presence known in the area, but other then that it’s been work, work and more work. The brigade was in the news the past few days, but that’s all I’m really going to say about that. It appears the elections went off without a major hitch, though turnout was lower then it was in 2004. The Taliban threatened widespread attacks on election day, but as usual those were just idle threats to keep people home. The few attacks they did carry out were aimed to keep those on the fence from leaving their homes. How it can be possible that people would chose to be ruled by fear over a democratically, internally responsible government is beyond me. For as low as the turnout was, consider that a 50% voter turnout is about par with what we have in the perfectly secure United States. What’s that tell you?

Anyways, the weather is becoming milder, and by milder I mean it isn’t 125 degrees anymore, but a cooler 100-110. It’s amazing how quickly we’ve all adapted to the extreme heat. No dust storms, sandstorms or camel spiders to report, thank God. Looks like the Giants are hanging in there while the Red Sox sweep Toronto, only to give up 20 runs to the Yankees in Boston. The 49ers still haven’t signed their number one draft pick wide receiver, but even if they did they really don’t have anyone to throw to him. It’s amazing that for a team that scouted the talent that became 20 years of Hall of Fame quarterbacks, they can’t find a good arm with the amount of early draft picks they’ve had. The Sharks, in an offseason of change, really haven’t changed much of anything other then who wears the leadership letters, which could very well end up being they same guys who wore them last year depending on how camp goes. Unless I missed something, Phil Kessel has yet to resign with the Bruins and another member of last year’s team has signed with Carolina, the team that knocked them out last year. That’s too much business in sports for me. Unless nobody else will give you a job, or you were in the minors, you shouldn’t sign with the team that knocked you out. And under no circumstances should anyone sign with Montreal. Ever.

At home apparently all the talk is about government providing health care, in a move that will probably squeeze out private insurers eventually. How is it that the entity responsible for protecting the economy by breaking up monopolies is now in the business for establishing them for themselves? Also consider the bracket of taxpayer who’ll foot most the bill for these plans are the people who already have quality health care, who don’t need to pay for it twice. It’s really income redistribution under the guise of “universal health care” because everyone health care seems to be a soft spot, everyone agrees people should have it, but not how to go about it. In past 8 months your government has bought several hundreds of billions of dollars worth of financial securities and private banking institutions. They also provided several more who didn’t necessarily need rescuing with billions in un-needed, and in some cases unwanted, aid. If they control your money and your health care, really what else is there? As Richard Nixon’s Special Counsel Charles Colson said, “When you’ve got ‘em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow”. Just food for thought. On a side note I’ll also be the guest hosting the Rush Limbaugh Show all next week, live from Afghanistan.

Until next time,

-DM

Sandstorms

August 19 Update: Forgive me for my lack of posting. Due to being busy at work and the aforementioned lack of internet, I haven't posted in a good while. Because we now have the internet in the tent, hopefully such a gaps are a thing of the past.

-DM

Finally, we’ve made it to August, which means getting through that first calendar month on deployment. I’ve been deployed longer then a month, but getting to August I guess is a ceremonial victory. Next time we’ll be in the July’s neighborhood it’ll be time for me to go home. If ever someone tried to turn an entire calendar year into something that could only be called “the micro year”, it was someone on deployment. Each day, each week and each month can be a victory in itself when thinking about eventually coming home.

To kick off August we had our first semi-sandstorm. I say semi because while there were high winds and blinding sand flying around everywhere, it wasn’t the kind of real storm that you hear about that ends up blocking out the sun or something. I guess it would have been more appropriate to call it a dust storm, but it was sand getting airborne mostly, so for our purposes here we’ll stick with sandstorm. I had the fortune of being caught outside when it came through. In walking from lunch back to work, I apparently appeared to have aged 20 years as my hair was turned grey by all the sand. It’s an amazing thing a sandstorm; you close your mouth but you still can feel the sand crunching in between your teeth and you close your eyes but still some finds it’s way in. It’s absolutely intolerable. It’s situations like that where I wonder how the Taliban actually believes we’re here to conquer Muslim lands for ourselves. Have they ever seen the United States? The few places like this in the US are either used for weapons testing, ground speed tests, or as a tourist attraction when people want to go down to Death Valley and see what real heat is. With it’s tropical locales, vast forests, snowy mountain peaks, quiet countryside’s and urban jungles there is no place more beautiful than the United States. Don’t believe me? Spend some time out here.

I am very happy to report I have not had another encounter with the dreaded camel spider since my last reporting. It’s an event too terrifying to temp fate with so I’m going to leave it at that. We’ve taken some real steps to finally solve the internet issue in our humble living spaces. We should be seeing some results in a week or two. I’m really pretty ready to get back to school, plus it’ll obviously be significantly easier to stay in touch with home and post a little more here. You’ll probably notice the dates are growing further in between one another and that’s only because of a significant increase in work, not a lack of interest. Accessible high-speed internet will also allow me to follow the upcoming hockey season, baseball playoffs and football season. It’s the little things in life out here.

Until next time,

-DM

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

Not really much new to report over the past nine days. It’s hard to believe it’s been nine days since my last post, which is a good thing in that the days are indeed going by. I’ve started to receive some of your care packages, so thanks very much for that. It’s always nice to get things from home and if you do plan on sending something, don’t worry so much about what you put in the packages, it’s just nice to get things from home. It’s nice to get things you can use, but it’s also nice to get things as simple as notes. As weird as it sounds, written sentiment still holds a lot of meaning out here, even in the age of email, blogs, Facebook, etc.

The weather is holding true with clear skies and temps into the 120’s. We’re about to head out of July and into August, which means it’s either going to cool down or warm up as the summer will peak before descending into fall. Fall could be my favorite season for no other reason then it stops getting hot outside. The colors and clarity are also unparalleled, and it means the start of hockey season, football season and baseball’s postseason. A time where legends are made and new campaigns are begun. For a sports fan there is no better time.

I still haven’t found out anything about my mid-tour leave. I was asked what country I would be visiting yesterday though, and I was one of a handful that said they were returning to the United States. If I’m going to go vacationing in Europe, Dubai or the South Pacific I’d rather do it in the obscurity of a private citizen, than with the guilty conscious which accompanies one temporary leaving their mission in a combat zone. Home is where we all irrevocably belong, and that’s where I’ll be going.

Thanks again to all who’ve sent me care packages I have received or have yet to receive, and for checking out the blog.

Until next time,

-DM

One Month

Well, we’re starting to make some progress; I’ve been deployed a little more then a month now. It’s not really that long a span of time, but it’s in one of the increments that you look forward to while going through a deployment. A lot has changed from the old way of life. Not so much that it makes you a radically different person, but enough to where you notice how being the military gears you for adapting to changes. Of course most of us don’t have to adapt to changes like this unless we’re in the military, so it might be a one-way street. Either way, getting that first month out of the way leaves hope that the remaining months will eventually just blur together.

We’re still trying to get set up so we can get going. It’s getting increasingly crowded around here with the continuous flow of new troops. We’ve been doing a lot of work to get our work site ready to go so we can have a place of our own. It’s kind of a drag when you’re spearheading an operation because you aren’t really relieving anyone or taking over facilities. A lot of prep work to do. As a new development, yesterday I saw my first camel spider. It was a little smaller than my hand and headed away from me when I saw it. Either way, when I stopped running I realized I was lost and had to find my way back to our work site. I really, really dislike spiders, especially ones that big. A spider that big will take the bug spray out of your hand and throw it at you. It’s not a joking matter.

I noticed today the Yankees have overtaken the Red Sox. It happens about this time every season, the Red Sox start off well, everyone thinks the Yankees are going to choke, then things start to even out and the Sox chase New York into October. The only exception to that rule was last season where the Yankees and their $250 million pay roll did choke and missed the post season. I don’t think that’s going to be the case this year. The Giants are trailing in the Wild Card now, too. It must be a case of the post All-Star Game slumps. The Sox are under .500 in their last 10 and I think the Giants might be a little better then that.

Here in Kandahar the temps are still hanging around the 110’s and 120’s. It was insanely hot the last few days, but not as bad today. For someone who doesn’t like warm weather, the bad guys sure chose a spot that wasn’t inline with my best wishes. Oh well, we don’t chose our fights anymore, we just win the ones we end up in.

Until next time,

-DM

120 degree temps follow Don Shula to Kandahar

The past couple of days the temperature here in Kandahar has reached into the upper 120’s were told. We’ve all gotten used to hot, but when you go outside right now it’s like standing next to an open oven door. It is ungodly hot here. Luckily we have various ways to keep water cooled so you can find some relief from the heat. We have air conditioning in the tents, but it’s almost a futile effort when it gets this hot.

As far as comings and goings of the area are concerned, the great Don Shula visited us this past week. I didn’t find out about it until he had come and gone though. It’s a pity, how many times in your life do you get to meet someone like Don Shula? I guess that’s one less chance for me. It’s nice that people who do things like that. They obviously don’t have to stop their lives and come out here. They do get to go back home after like a week, but they do make their rounds and we appreciate it.

For those of us looking towards life after deployment, apparently by mid 2010 the Army wants to extend dwell time to 18-24 months. With the conflict slowing down in Iraq and hopefully Afghanistan turning around, it’ll be a nice change of routine for people with deployments. The way it’s worked, you have people deployed for 12-15 months, home for 12 months then back out for another 12-15 months. I guarantee there are some married soldiers who’ve been married for three years, and spent two of those years away from their spouse. Things cannot successfully work out for people in their lives with things working that way.

So, with change here and in Iraq, hopefully things can draw back a little bit and people can direct more of their attention to the homeland and their families. It’s been almost 9 years, I think people deserve a break.

Until next time,

-DM