01 December

On 25 Nov at 4:27pm Eastern time, the wheels of my plane hit American soil; ending a chapter in my life. It has been a long and educational journey. Thank you all for your support and prayers. As I have said many times before, I learned a lot, a lot about myself, people, government, and the military. Some times when you learn things, it is disturbing or frustrating. These problems must be met with solutions, not a blind eye or complacency.

In conclusion: I wish I could sum up all of my thoughts from the past 8 months and provide a concise and clear answer for all of the world’s problems or even a fraction of the problems we face overseas…I cannot. However, there are a few items which I feel strongly about.

Our goals in Afghanistan: The corrupt Afghan government will continue to suck America dry as long as we let them. They will not step up and do things for themselves unless we make them. This holds true from the President on down. WE MUST HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE.

As for sending more troops; Pres Obama relies on advisors for every single decision he makes from his kids advising him in the pardoning of a turkey to his cabinet and czars advising him international politics and war. His top man in Afghanistan has requested/recommended a troop increase. This would not be popular among the people that voted the Pres into power. I believe this is the reason for his long delay in making this important decision. It looks as if he will partially grant this request with a half-hearted troop increase. I think he lets politics fog his ability to make correct military decisions. Sending more troops into harm’s way is undoubtedly a tough decision, but one that he signed up to make when he decided to run for the Presidency.

The rest of the War on Terror: Of course, sending more troops to Afghanistan is not the final answer for our War on Terror. We must hold other governments accountable for allowing terrorists to train and operate on their soil. Governments found to harbor and support terrorists should have the strictest of sanctions placed on them and receive ZERO foreign aid from the U.S., U.N., NATO, etc. Non-profits shall have their assets frozen and punished severely if they are found to provide relief to any country known to harbor or support terrorists or terror organization; knowingly or otherwise. If they are not responsible enough to investigate where there dollars are going, they won’t be trusted with that responsibility. Yes, innocent people will suffer, but if those people are suffering due to the actions of their governments, they will eventually fight back. America cannot afford to continue to give undeserving handouts to the world.

We must continue to develop programs to fight terror on our soil and abroad. When the war in Afghanistan “ends,” the War on Terror will go on. Pres Bush declared a war on terror after 9/11, but we had been half-heartedly battling terror for several decades. The problem was we never allocated enough of the right resources to truly combat one of the biggest problems we face today. What changed after 9/11 was the level of attention we all paid to the problem and our willingness to wage war on those that had long ago declared war on us. I see us now slipping back into a state of complacency in which we prefer to pretend like “everything is OK.” What many people don’t realize is that in the mid ‘90’s, Osama and his friends declared war on us and our way of life. They started their attacks shortly thereafter, but we didn’t “really” respond until 9/11. Our lives changed with the formation of these terror organizations decades ago, but we didn’t see the full measure of the effects until late 2001. I liken it to someone developing a life threatening disease or condition. Did your life change the day your cells were affected in your body, the day you were diagnosed, or the day you first felt the effects? It is all a matter of perspective. One thing is for sure; your life will never be the same. Whether you are fortunate enough to beat it or resume some life that resembles your pre-diagnosis way of life, you are changed. It may be a scar or something else physical, but you will undoubtedly have a new way of looking at life and each day you share with family and friends…bottom line; you are different. The same holds true for our lives in a world with Islamic Extremists. We cannot just stop fighting, we cannot neglect our responsibility to protect our way of life, and we cannot turn a blind eye. Survivors of life-threatening illness or injury all say one thing, “I never quit fighting, and I never gave up.”

America is infected with a rapidly spreading aggressive disease (really several of them in my opinion) that we cannot ignore or stop fighting.

Our government: As Americans, we cannot afford to be complacent. We cannot keep accepting the poor performance of our elected officials and re-electing them. We must hold them accountable and let them know how we feel about the issues. We cannot allow the federal government to continue to take power away from the states. Government intrusion in your life must be met with the fiercest resistance. They shouldn’t be able to tell you how you can discipline your children or what kind of firearms you can legally possess. There is no middle ground here; stand up, be counted and fight, or stay lying down and don’t act surprised when you and every right you thought you had are trampled under the feet of a growing, self-serving government and its politicians.

Our way of life:

· Keep God first in your life and our country.

· Spend responsibly. Save responsibly.

· Have kids and raise them right (Thank you to my parents and family.)

o Make them go outside

o Impress upon them the importance of education

o Teach them about their family and America

o Hold them accountable.

· When the government and your elected officials do something that aggravates you, get mad, let them know about it, and don’t take it lying down. Hold them accountable.

· Be proud to be an American…NEVER apologize for being one.

· I tackle everyday with the following thought: IF YOU AREN’T MAKING IT BETTER, YOU ARE MAKING IT WORSE!

So, is there an underlying theme that could be a big part of the answer?

ACCOUNTABILITY!

Hold yourself, your kids, your spouse, your neighbor, and your government accountable.

Our government must hold itself and others accountable.

The justice system must hold criminals accountable.

It is all about accountability.

Pray for our troops. Pray for our enemies. God bless.

BMP

***Muriel and I will continue to use this to keep everyone up to speed on our adventures. New pics/video from Afghanistan to come soon. California adventures and pics to follow.

13 NOV

Final Friday in Afghanistan. One last Jummah. One last trip to the bazaar. Last truly Afghan blog entry. My bags are packed, boxes have been shipped. How appropriate, my final Jummah is a Jummah the 13^th? Such as life.

I finished a book Thursday that was a great way to follow Because They Hate. Titled Revolution! A New Plan for Selecting Representatives, the book outlines a plan to replace all 435 members of the House of Representatives. Originally written to execute the plan in the 2008 elections, GOOOH (Get Out Of Our House-go to GOOOH.com to check it out and read more) has now shifted to the 2010 election. GOOOH is not a political party, it is a concept that serves to change the way we select those that supposedly represent us in Washington. Sure, the founder, Tim Cox of Texas, wishes that all those chosen and elected would share his views, but he is confident that if chosen by his plan, the people elected will represent the people of their districts. How many of you feel truly represented by the fat cat lawyers and millionaires that make up our elected bodies today? Are they making decisions based on what is best for you, the American TAX PAYER, or what is best for their re-election campaigns? People, hell, entire families have made their entire living “serving” the tax payers. We keep re-electing and electing the same ole politicians year after year, yet we have nothing but failing government programs and ill-advised government takeovers to show for it. Mr. Cox’s plan is not the cure-all, but it is a step in the right direction. How can we expect the same ole crowd to make revolutionary decisions to reverse the current course of our country? Our country was founded on principles held by hardworking farmers, businessmen, and military leaders…everyday Americans, and that is who must stand up and be counted. I find it personally promising that some of Mr. Cox’s main points address the issues that Mrs. Gabriel says we must address in order to stabilize our country and our way of life in the face of Islamic extremism.

As far as those of you who think that a course reversal is a bit much, consider some points and statistics:

• Our reliance on foreign oil controlled by radical Islamic states is out of control.

• We must take action in regards to our environment—the environment is not political, but every time a politician starts talking about it, half of the population automatically closes their ears because the person talking is from the other party—we have to come together and take action.

• In 1936 (Great Depression), about 1% of the population was on welfare, in 1994 15% were soaking up your hard earned dollars—needs fixing.

• The top 52% of earners pay 100% of the taxes—not fair.

• Some Americans fork over close to 50% of their earnings to Uncle Sam, while the drug dealers, bookies, and black market folks don’t pay a dime in income taxes. A consumption tax would alleviate that problem and do away with the IRS (GOOD THING) See fairtax.org

• At the time of printing, the top 10% of earners pay over 60% of taxes. Distributing our growing national debt equally among us 10% folks, we each are down $672,000…but no one is slowing down the spending machine that is our Federal Government.

• The U.S. Government pays 50% more on healthcare per person than the next most expensive country (Switzerland)—we aren’t even trying to give healthcare to everyone, yet. The World Health Organization ranks us 37^th in the world for overall healthcare systems

• Department of Education has spent nearly $1 trillion since its inception ($71 billion budget), yet high school graduation rates across the country have not budged in 28 years. In the city of Cleveland, a meager 28% of students graduated from high school (I personally believe that parental involvement, drugs, and teen pregnancy are chief to blame for poor graduation rates in some of our communities.)

• Most Politicians and many public school teachers send their kids to private school—Hello, anybody home?

• We spend an average of over $23,000 per prisoner in the Federal system, but the average welfare recipient gets less than $15,000—Now, I think welfare needs to be revamped completely, but it wouldn’t cost me or you a dime to switch these two numbers. Prisoners are guaranteed hot food, cable TV, and medical care…the food should be cold, the TV gone, and the medical care limited to tourniquets and rubbing alcohol.

• Social Security—that gig is up. We have to stop the madness.

• Legal Immigration is a great thing. It makes our country who we are. Illegal immigration is bringing us to our knees and killing us literally. Ponder this, freeamerica.com reports(at time of printing) since 9/11, including 9/11 less than 7,000 Americans have died at the hands of terrorists including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other attacks, 19,000 have died a violent death at the hands of illegal aliens, 20,000 due to uninsured illegals drunk behind the wheel, 13,000 victimized children at the hands of illegals…we have 250,000 illegal aliens that are known sex offenders in our country

In conclusion, I demand more than a minor course correction from our elected officials. Every topic listed above has a giant government program with thousands of employees that should all be held accountable for the failures of their respective programs. If you owned a business and got this level of productivity from your employees, would you stand for it? No, you wouldn’t. Heads would roll. Why do we accept this from our government? What if George, Ben, Sam, and Thomas had taken “The Crown’s” bull and not done anything about it 233 years ago? It is our turn, not to take up arms, not to secede, but to use the system put in place by the geniuses that founded our great nation to get her back on track.

Over 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson said, “God forbid that we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.”

Samuel Adams said, “If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men should possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”

Mark Twain said, “In the beginning of change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated, and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him…”

As a Federal Employee, I see the monster at work. I see inefficiencies that would blow your mind. The only thing we can do is report blatant fraud, waste, and abuse and elect officials that will demand more of themselves and hold accountable the spending machine programs. We have 51 weeks left until 2010 elections. Something has got to give.

The FT. HOOD terror attack, I wanted to touch on it, but not go into great detail… Had this been on a street corner or train, no questions asked, terrorist. But he was a military officer, so we cannot call it a terror attack, can we? Cut the crap. This same PC attitude is what kept people from speaking up about this lunatic Infidel-hater long ago. I am sure those people that could have spoken up are sick to their stomachs, I’d be. But, I know exactly why they didn’t say anything. Any harsh word or order to perform a less than desirable task in the military has to be handled with care, always aware of the possible Equal Opportunity complaint that could come my way. I see poor performers promoted regularly because people don't want to give them a bad evaluation because it will hurt their career...not keeping score at kids soccer games is the least of our concerns. Just wanted to let you know where these folks are coming from in their hesitation to report weird behavior by a Muslim in their ranks.

Thanks for the Vets Day emails. Pray for the families of the Ft Hood Terror Attack Victims. Pray for the full recovery of Dr. Hasan; I want him to get his day in court and experience being killed all over again.

God bless and Geaux Tigers.

BMP

06 NOV

10 days until I am homeward bound. I can see it, I can taste it, and I can feel it. It has been a long journey that has gone really fast in the grand scheme of things. The way I see it, this is my second to last Afghan entry, made in Afghanistan. I will probably write during my travels and post a final Afghan Blog upon my return to the U.S. of A.

The elections getting canceled hasn’t really been a hot topic of discussion around here. We were prepping for the pending elections up until Monday night when they finally called off securing sites for an election that had been canceled hours earlier between two guys, one of which said he quit the day before…shouldn’t be making any sense to you because it doesn’t. My personal feeling on the whole election debacle is one of uncertainty. I think the whole thing makes a statement on Afghanistan's readiness to operate independent of outside help...they are far from it. The runoff was the result of fraudulent ballots, yet nothing was changed with the election commission or any other factor to ensure an improvement in the integrity of the process; however, they were going to go on with an election. That is the reason Dr. Abdullah dropped out, he new that there would be wide spread fraud. When I questioned locals during all of this, the consensus was Karzai is better be cause he is Pashtun (the same tribe as most of them)....sad.

I have been thinking considerably since writing last week in response to Mr. Hoh’s resignation. I also started and finished a book titled Because They Hate. The non-fiction book is written by a Lebanese Christian woman who spent the first part of her life in a peaceful Christian village in southern Lebanon, then all hell broke loose in her perfect bubble of a world and war ensued and lasted for 7 years. Seven years of living in a bunker with her aging parents and seeing death and destruction daily. Seven years of seeing people killed for being Christian or Jewish at the hands of crazed Islamic extremists killing in the name of a god I don’t want to know. Robbed of her childhood, she escaped to Israel where her eyes were opened to the reality of Islamic hatred. Much of the world will say that Israel INVADED Lebanon. Her version of the story is that Israel came to the aid of a group of Christian people who took up arms against the Islamic aggressors. She goes on to explain her feelings about the true the Islam that we are blind to and what America and the West must do to stop them. Without going into great detail, I will outline what she says we must do to protect our country followed by my own commentary:

1. Close the borders…there is a legal way for people to enter our country. She did it herself and thousands of people do it every year. The problem is thousands also enter our porous borders with ill intent for our country and our way of life.

2. Reform the immigration process in our country…according to Mrs. Gabriel (she married an Israeli), The INS approved Mohamad Atta’s student visa six months after he died while blowing up the WTC on 9/11/2001...your tax dollars at work.

3. Increase Human Intelligence (HUMINT)…this means spend more to train more people to go deep under cover in our country and others to infiltrate groups of bad people. Satellites and drones are neat, but there is no substitute for good HUMINT. Someone has to have the guts to act on this HUMINT (Kill bad people). G.W. signed off on it. The CIA was trying to do it, but Congress called foul play because they weren't informed. Now the American people and the World are informed. Quite frankly, there are people that get paid to know and do stuff that the average American citizen doesn't need to know or cannot handle, infact, most don't want to know.

4.” Profile, Profile, Profile” she says. Racially that is. We waste time, money, and energy searching white haired little ladies at the airport with the same scrutiny as we look at Arab men between the age of 16 and 40. If we spend more time searching the people that fit the bill for blowing shit up, and waste less on those of us that don’t, we might actually be able to call the searches worthwhile.

5. Silence any teaching of intolerance against our country…including the close monitoring of Islamic websites. According to Mrs. Gabriel, there are mosques all over our country spewing hate for America and our way of life. All literature that calls for the destruction of America or the death of Americans should be burned and anyone preaching it who is not an American citizen should be shipped home to their country of origin. People who are not citizens of the U.S. should not be afforded rights such as freedom of speech or due process...you messed up, game over, go home.

6. As individuals, she recommends we watch where we invest to make sure we aren’t supporting terror (www.divestterror.org), promote western values in our homes, report suspicious behavior, lobby for patriotic education, and of course, support our troops.

Brigitte Gabriel’s book is a good read and brought many things to my attention that I previously had not considered. What I find most interesting about her book is that she is an Arab woman who lived terror long before the twin towers collapsed. She is not a middle aged white guy who gets paid to talk. She has seen it first hand and stands to warn us of what is to come if we don’t put aside the political correctness B.S. and fight back.

If what Mrs. Gabriel says is true of Islam (I am trying to find a “real” English translation of the Koran), our mission in Afghanistan needs to wrap up. We need to collapse our security perimeter to our borders, support Israel in their military endeavors, and stand by to defend our nation against the impending attacks. This seems like dooms day talk, but why do we have handguns in our homes…there are police right? We lock our doors at night. We have neighborhood watch and street lights. Sure we have all of those, and no real reason to suspect that someone is coming for us and our stuff, yet most of us stand ready to shoot the first S.O.B. that wants to get at us and our stuff…white, black, yellow, Christian, Muslim, Jewish…our bullets in the closet don’t care. Why should our borders be any different? If you mean America harm, if you preach or find delight in the idea of the destruction of my way of life, if you run around thinking that you are going to turn my country into an Islamic state, please, I beg you come to my house first to try to convert me by force.

Geaux Tigers. God Bless.

BMP

31 Oct

In a rare non Friday entry, I have urgent news to report.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,570613,00.html?test=latestnews

The headline reads:

"Murdered Imam's Followers Deny FBI Radical Claims"

Murdered?... Murdered?
Websters defines murder as: 1 : the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought

Since when is an FBI shootout that results from them getting shot at by some radical hate preacher "unlawful." FOXNEWS should be ashamed for posting such nonsense. I cannot contact FOX because my computer won't let me, but I ask that you all do so.

Thanks
BMP

30 OCT

Greetings. This week's entry is the result of a question I was asked regarding my opinion on the actions of an American civilian who quit his government job due to loss in confidence in our efforts in Afghanistan.

Mr. Hoh is a civilian and can quit any job he wants when he sees fit and say anything about why he did what he did or how he feels about government policy. As far as what he said: he has lost confidence and understanding in the mission. The mission is clear: Train and enable the Afghan Government and Security Forces to do their jobs so they can stand as an independent free country that can squash any uprising or insurgency and fight to own land that would otherwise be inhabited by people who wish harm to millions of innocent people around the world. If we leave Afghanistan now or before the above mission is accomplished, there will be more blood on American soil. Why? Because the same peace-preaching hippies who want to bring all the troops home regardless of their need to be overseas won't take the steps necessary to keep bad people out of America or hunt down the ones already in our country in the name of rights (Reminder, they aren't American and they want to do bad things to us.). We can fight them over here or we can fight them in our streets, which sounds better to you?

I am not mad at you for asking or at Mr. Hoh for walking away. He had the right and he chose to exercise it. I wish we could leave here and the people here could live on their own and defend their country against all enemies foreign and domestic. Is the war "fueling the insurgency?" I think it is a ridiculous "trap question." What came first, the chicken or the egg? If we left, who would they blow up? The answer is, they'd blow up whatever they see fit in order to reclaim control of this country, which they probably would do eventually do. Then they'd establish a Muslim State and harbor more bad people that would train to kill good people and then they'd launch more missions like the embassy bombings of the late 90s, USS Cole of 2000 and the 9/11 attacks. Then what do we do, start all over? If at first you don't succeed, try again...I think that is best left for the first time you try to run a 5K or make the football team. What about, "If it is worth doing, it is worth doing twice." Nope, that isn' t it. The more appropriate saying for international conflict is, "If it is worth doing, it is worth doing right and finishing the first time."

The truth hurts, and in war people die. What changed regarding our superiority and patriotism between WWII and today? Why are our politicians scared of war? A few things...we haven't had a uniform-wearing enemy that wanted to fight man on man. They cheat. They hide among women and children and use them to kill Americans and coalition forces. Can anyone fight and succeed against America in the air, on land, or on the high seas? No, so no one will try. Anyone that would like to do so can easily fund our enemy to keep us busy and wear down our fighting forces....it is being done today by Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Venezuela, and the list goes on. Politicians need votes to stay in power. Coffins don't vote and actually can cause people to vote the other way. With a governing body that is more concerned about votes and staying in office than serving our country and upholding the constitution as it was written by the brave men that formed our country, you get people voting not in line with the long term best interest of the United States, but in the best interest of their individual political careers. I see it everyday in Afghanistan; people acting in their own interest instead of that of their unit or the people of Afghanistan. The same self-serving and self-righteous attitude that is not allowing this country to transition from crawl to walk is going to take America back to her knees. It has been said that we are hundreds of years ahead of Afghanistan and other third world countries (sans cellphones, computers, and internal combustion engines), but if our "leaders" continue us down the current course, we cannot maintain our superiority. It also falls on the American people to find new people to lead this country in the right direction instead of the resultant vector of their individual agendas. Russia was a great and powerful nation. Communism broke it and now they are getting back on their feet. America will borrow ourselves broke to bailout this and that and provide stimuli to our people because that is instant gratification.

Our first Gulf War lasted less than 48 hours...instant gratification, but if we'd finished Hussein off that time, we wouldn't be there today. Bush proclaimed mission accomplished too early in Iraq because he either suffered from the same anxiety that his father did and wanted to say it was over, or because he thought that is what the American people wanted to hear...probably both.

In Afghanistan, they say the Americans have the watches (all the fancy equipment and gear), but the Taliban have time. This means they know that all they have to do is hold out and make us lose the war at home by killing a few people here and there. The commanders over here are scared to lose people, so they make their folks sit around on bases all day making power points about how bad the bad people are. If the American police just sat around talking about bad people and never made an effort to go get them, we would never lose police in the line of duty, but many innocent Americans would die at the hands of rapists and murderers...would America stand for that? Why not, no police are dying? What is the difference? If we are going to kill these assholes that mean us harm, good red-blooded American men are going to die in the process. It will hurt and families will suffer losses, but no one over here was drafted and we all signed up knowing what lied ahead.

Remember, it is either going to go down on the side of some mountain or on a dirt road in this country, or it is going to go down in the streets of ours*. I will say it again. Home field advantage is not something you want in the war on terror.

BMP

*This was written 2 days before the FBI had a shootout in the streets of Michigan with an extremist Muslim cleric who preached hatred for Americans and all non-Muslims.

23 OCT

5 weeks until I touch down on sweet American soil. Not much has changed in my world. Still, more folks from the GA National Guard arriving daily. With the influx of people, more people to cause trouble, spread germs and, as mentioned before, just make the place less pleasant. Well, when you tell all these people who, apparently, know everything that it is vital that everyone follow certain rules designed to prevent the spread of germs and they don’t choose to follow the rules, people get sick. I fell victim one night this week to a 24 hour bug that put me down hard. I am better now and ever vigilant of the non-hand washing newbies that have taken over our slice of heaven.

I have been able to turnover my U.S. responsibilities, so now all I have are my mentoring jobs. I’d rather have had only the mentoring jobs the entire tour. The next hurdle is getting the GA guys to take the same attitude and initiative we had toward the mentoring mission. I fear that they underestimate the importance of the mission and will neglect it. One does not have to look far to find that our priority in AF is to build a self-sufficient government and security force to combat the Taliban and other Anti-AF Forces. How can they possibly think that they can roll into these people’s backyard and not interact with them. They are coming around, but initially they had no intentions of working with the ANA. Still, they do not have the training that even I have for this. One guy that I am working with has been in the country as long as me and has never used an interpreter. It truly blows my mind. I would love to tell you that this is all part of someone’s bad plan, but this is shear accident. My team has been scheduled to leave in late Nov for several months. This GA Guard unit just showed up here a few weeks ago to call Hughie home. They weren't sent here as part of someone's master inadequate plan. They got booted from Kabul and literally just packed the trucks and came to our area and started looking for a base to set up in. By virtue of them moving in and staking claim, they inherited our mentoring mission. So, without them, the guys we (including my predecessors) have been working with for several years would have been left to fend for themselves. Yes, they are grown men. Yes, they should be able to handle independent operations, but the cold hard truth is that they can’t. We have had many small successes, but the battle of training up a real, complete fightin’ army is far from over. Sure, they know how to fight, and can reasonably drive vehicles, but the administrative, maintenance, and logistics areas remain weak.

On a better note, I went up to the ANA front gate today, and when I got there, I noticed that all the guards were wearing helmets, bullet proof vests and looked to be attentive. My first instinct was, “What the hell is going on here?...Should I be up here?” First thing is first, I told my terp to find out what the hell was going on. He asked the guy in charge and that guy explained, “It is our main gate we must be professional and ready for anything.”

SIX MONTHS! SIX FREAKIN’ MONTHS! After blood, sweat, and nearly tears, they show a glimmer of understanding. Is it going to be like that every day? NOPE. Why? Because if I thought it would be, I’d be expecting it to be, and that is poor expectation management.

While up there, I note that one of the soldiers’ AK47 machine gun is on the full auto setting. I told the terp to inform him of this. The soldier replied with, “No it is not.” I asked to see the rifle, but before he turned it over, he had to repeatedly pull the trigger to show me how safe the gun was. It wasn’t pointed at me at the time, but I do think my heart skipped a beat. I showed him that he was, in fact, walking around with his weapon in a less than optimal condition, but he would have none of it.

Security Company and Headquarters Company (both departments I mentor) were issued 4-wheelers this week. I have scheduled Saturday as a intro to 4-wheelers instructional course. I have heard horror stories from other units around the country turning over 4-wheelers to their counterparts and these guys destroying them and hurting themselves. With no concept of safety or control, things can go real bad real fast.

Didn’t stay up and watch the Saints game last week, guess I am not a true fan. A Giants fan did refer to them as the ‘Aints a few days ago. I replied, “I am pretty sure you can’t call them that anymore.” Should be a classic battle on the bayou this weekend in Tiger Stadium. I will be watching at 4am.

Have a great weekend. Geaux Tigers and God Bless.

BMP

16 OCT

Real quick week. They are flying by now. I said last week that I was in to T minus 7 weeks, but that was wrong, I have 31 days until I leave this base and then about a week and a half of travel before hitting the U.S. Many of you may have heard Murl and I are headed to San Diego for a few years for our next tour.

Not much at all to report here. People don’t talk much here about more troops or the Afghan elections…that stuff is all over the news, but not much to talk about it here. The biggest thing going on in my life is over 200 people moving into my neighborhood that was once a quiet little wooded FOB that we called home. There have been murmurs of it for months, but nothing concrete. Well about two weeks ago, it got real concrete real fast. The French took over a U.S. base in Kabul and the displaced folks (GA National Guard) needed a place to call home. Problem is, there was really no room in then inn. After re-setting up tents that we set up twice and disassembled, taking out the base recreation room, chapel, store, mail room, and moving a lot of people around, they think they have room for all of these people. How does it affect me? Hopefully soon, one of these fine folks will take my job and I’ll lose my office. I will be able to stay in my room until just before we roll out. Lines will be longer to use the computer and phones, and the gym will be more crowded. All in all, it just makes the place more crowded and less pleasant to be at.

Watched Game Day broadcast from the Parade Grounds Sat night and woke up early to watch the LSU/UF game. I think we all know how that turned out, but there were some promising things I saw in the game. I cannot express how nice it is to be able to watch live football, especially the Tigers, while over here. With the bye week this week, I’ll have to watch the Saints game instead of LSU.

We celebrated the Navy birthday this week. Nothing big, but they made us a cake and hung up a ton of decorations. We have been burning scrap wood in the evenings and sitting around the fire. It is really starting to cool off here. Still getting hot during the day, but only up to the high 80s/low 90s. At night, it is probably dipping into the 60s. The fire pit is our escape from all of the new people clogging up the gym and slowing down the internet.

If you cannot tell, I am most definitely ready to pack my bags and start my journey home.

Have a good weekend. God bless.BMP

09 OCT

Week 8 down, counting down the days of week 7 now. I was able to watch the Tigers claw their way to victory “Between the Hedges” last week. With a midnight kickoff, I set my alarm for 1145pm and went to bed about 7pm Saturday night. I rose just before midnight and couldn’t get a satellite signal in my office (where I’d rather watch the game and yell at the TV in privacy), so I had to watch with about 8 UGA fans and one other tiger in the dining facility (DFAC). The GA boys brought in flags, hats, and barely intelligible North GA accents. I played the part of the “bigger man” for once in my life and just brought a good attitude and the burning desire to see them all cry. I was able to keep my mouth shut for most of the game, but a moment of weakness proved to be too much when one of the guys looks at me like he had just done me a favor and exclaims “You lucky! He ‘bout got that ‘un” when a GA player missed a crucial pass in the final minutes with LSU still down. I said the first thing that came to mind, “…’bout don’t count big boy, we gunna score us a touchdown.”

As you all know, I ended up on the right side of that deal. Now we face a battered Tebow (possibly) and a win hungry UF team that could be the best team Coach Miles has ever seen, but it is Saturday night in Tiger Stadium, and anything can happen. This will be a 0400am kickoff for me, and there is at least 2 UF fans on the camp, so it should be a good one.
Nothing new to report from my side of the world, really. I have been staying on the FOB for the most part, so my interaction with the story factory has been minimal. I have made arrangements for one of my terps to buy me a pressure cooker and rice cooking lessons from my counterpart’s “driver” (really, I have never seen the guy drive. He mainly is a tea boy, cook, and self proclaimed body guard.) He talks with the whiniest nasal voice that is so far from soldier-like, he’d be more fitting as a Circle K bathroom attendant than a soldier, but that joker can make some tea and cook the heck out of some rice. One of his duties is keeping my counterparts things straight…weapons, ammo, rockets, papers….you know, the essentials. I saw him wearing a pistol once (odd because only officers in the ANA or senior enlisted have pistols), so I asked where he got it, but before I could get it out, I realized it was my counterpart’s pistol and holster. He explained to me that when he comes in, he takes it off and gives it ton San-Jan (pron. Sawn-john), that way, when he needs it, San-Jan can give it to him. That there is what I call Afghan logic, remember, everything makes sense to someone.

You may have read that 8 U.S. soldiers died in a fierce battle in Nuristan Province. That is about a day’s drive or 1hr flight to the north of me. 21 more were wounded. I don’t know what the exact number of Afghan Soldiers KIA/WIA is, but it was substantial. 29 U.S. KIA/WIA tells me that almost no one went unharmed. On small outposts like this one, there are sometimes as few as 10 U.S. personnel. These brave men were attacked in the early morning hours of Saturday by an estimated over 200 enemy fighters. With the use of their personal weapons, large machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars, and help from aircraft above, they were able to take out over 100 fighters. This is all straight out of the papers and such, but I just wanted let some of you know that may not have heard about these brave souls. They were in the process of packing up and moving out of this remote location as part of the big plan to re-concentrate in population centers to provide better protection for the AF people. These guys were days or hours away from air conditioning and satellite TV, but for some, that would never happen. Yet, 24 hours later on national television, the National Security Advisor declares that Al-Qaeda is no longer a serious threat in AF, and they are not capable of mounting an attack on U.S. assets in country.

QUOTE FROM ARTICLE: Jones, interviewed on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, said Gen. Stanley McChrystal's call for additional troops in Afghanistan was "just one option," and he said Al Qaeda is not getting stronger there.
"The good news ... in Afghanistan is that the Al Qaeda presence is very diminished," Jones said. "The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country. No bases. No ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies."

This wasn’t said before this crap went down in that valley in a remote location filled with lawless extremists. This was said by our President’s primary advisor on all things related to national security BEFORE the deadliest day in AF in over a year. He is also a guy against more troops. Some may argue that it wasn’t AQ, but the Taliban that have been ramping up attacks over the years. This is FALSE information or a misunderstanding of the big picture. The TALIBAN were/are Afghan people that ruled and still desire to rule the country with an iron fist through human rights violations and endless acts of a horrific nature. AQ is a worldwide network of Muslim extremists that want nothing in life more than to see the failure of our great nation and the death of Israel. AQ fighters are AF, Pakistani, Iranian, Chinese, Somali, Egyptian, Saudi, Sudanese, Filipino, Australian, German, French, AMERICAN,….yellow, white, black, and every combination of the above. They go by different names and have different leaders, but they have one common goal and one recognized head leader, Usama Bin Laden. When fighters are killed or captured in this country, they are rarely some dude from around the corner, they are more than likely foreign fighters. So, when this guy says that there are probably less than 100 AQ fighters in the country, he is just wrong, and in my opinion, intentionally trying to water down the threat that AQ poses to our forces and our country.

On another note, the folks back home have been doing an excellent job putting some puzzles together and taking some bad people off the streets. Thanks to the hard work and countless hours of information gathering, we have eliminated several domestic terrorists and one AF born guy that wanted to blow up the big D. Let these arrests be a reminder that there are people in America that want to do us harm and lots of it.

With all that said, have a great Columbus Day weekend. Geaux Tigers and God Bless.
BMP

02 OCT

A quick and uneventful week in the books.

Besides an LSU squeak-by win , a few short convoys, and one real long one, I didn’t do too much. We went to Kabul and back in one day to drop off some guys so they could make the long journey back to their families. I look forward to making that same journey in 45 days; though, I won’t be home until mid DEC.

I have inherited some new responsibilities in the past 2 weeks. I was chosen to be the proof reader /reviser for a few award narratives and have now become one of the primary construction supervisors/approvers. Thursday, one of the construction interpreters found me…”Mr. Person, Mr. Person, we have problem, come I will show you.”

“Oh, I bet you do.”

So he takes me to show me how they were unable to drill 6” holes and could only drill 3” holes in the concrete because of the “webar” in the slab. I watched them try, and said that it was possible that they were hitting rebar, but more than likely, they just didn’t know how to use the drill. I looked at the drill, flipped a few dials and the drill came to life with a hammering noise as the bit spun violently. They stood back and watched as I made their 3” hole into a 6” hole with ease. They cheered me on as I did their work.

I relinquished the drill and made sure they understood how to use it and that they knew that in the future if they are having a problem, right after breakfast is probably a better time to tell me about it than after lunch.

The terp could only say, “Mr. Person, you are right, we will listen to you. This piece of equipment, we did not even know about it.”

This is a typical story for how the construction goes around here. We have one project that is 4 months behind on a 1 month project. The guy claims to be finished, but he is not. He expects to be paid immediately…our rogue little policy is to pay them day for day….he will be paid in February.

As far as my comments on current events goes, I was shocked to find out that B.O. has only spoken to his highest ranking officer in AF once via telephone since he was put in place at the beginning of the summer….I doubt it is just me, but that doesn’t seem right to me.

There has been a bunch of shuffling of people around here. A bunch of soldiers moved out of here today to go other places. There is supposed to be several hundred moving in throughout OCT, but that stuff changes day to day and is half rumor usually.

Keeping it short this week. Think of me surrounded by UGA fans watching the LSU game with a midnight kickoff Sunday morning. Have a good weekend. God Bless.

BMP

25 September

[no pics due to computer problems]

It has been over a month since I wrote. I came home for leave for 2 weeks and had a great time with family and friends. I regret not being able to visit with everyone, but that is life. It took me about 3 days to get home in late August and about 6 to get back to my base in mid to late Sept.

From what I have seen of people returning from leave is that they arrive back here completely de-motivated and “flat.” I vowed that I would be different. As I left Murl in the BR airport, I got on a plane to start a journey. In my mind, I was walking out of the locker room back to the playing field for another half of give it all you got. I flew from BR to Dallas to Germany to Kuwait to Bagram, AF and on to my base essentially. It was no problem until I hit Kuwait and realized where everyone loses their motivation. It is just something about being stuck in that for place 3 to 5 days that takes it out of you. I linked up with a friend there and we traveled on together.

I returned to my base on the first day of the Islamic celebration of Eid. I learned that this is a holiday that lasts a week, and you better not expect anyone to do any work. It falls on the heels of Ramadan where no real work occurred for about a month. Needless to say, it has been an easy transition for me from leave to nobody doing anything. I think it helped me regain some motivation that was stolen from me in Kuwait. On the other hand, with the discussion of more/less troops, more money, different strategy, going home, staying…it is very hard to set long term goals and convince these wild people to do things the right way. I am not talking about the American way, I am talking about not stealing, about following a contract to the letter, about taking responsibility for actions and inactions. I lost something else on leave…my rose colored lenses of hope for this country and the people that drag it down. We have created a welfare state filled with people with a sense of entitlement and no appreciation for the work we do here. Once again, these statements are not all encompassing, but I think it covers the majority.

So the question lingers…What happens if we pull out now? Well, over the course of several years, they will destroy everything we built for them through neglect, feuding, waste, and tribal warfare. The government will collapse because currently there is no money going into it other than the American Dollar. As the country descends into civil war, the power vacuum created will inevitably be filled by tyrannical extremists that will harbor/support people that want to kill westerners and destroy our way of life.

Add more troops? It worked in Iraq, but remember, the average Iraqi is much more educated than the average Afghan and so it is hard to compare the two countries. The extra troops would have to be properly employed not like the hundreds of soldiers I saw living at Bagram Airfield doing nothing. They were ordered to Afghanistan, but weren’t put to work upon arrival….that is your tax dollars.

Our President is currently “mulling” his VP’s plan to reduce troop number and use more UAVs and Special Forces. Who do they think runs the huge airfields and bases required to house these people and their equipment? For example, Bagram Airfield (BAF) has close to 20,000 personnel, and only 10% (2,000) will ever leave the base. The rest are just base support. Our generals are saying they need more troops…is it possible, even conceivable that the VP is more in tune to the war strategy than and the career military men, not the way I see it. There are a thousand different combinations of money, troops, and asset changes that will not work in this war and a few that will. If I knew what would work, I’d probably not be writing this right now. However, what I do know is that it takes time. When you are talking about shaping a country and changing a culture, it takes generations. You have to breed out the instincts that tell people to lie, cheat, and steal. There have been several major strategy shifts in the 6 short months I have been here. You have to hold people (everyone, including the president and his family) accountable for their actions. People need to know that if they do something or don’t do something, they will be held responsible and it won’t be fun. (See the rise in crime in America over the last 30 years, the rise in single mom’s raising babies in the U.S. without the help of the father, the sky rocketing numbers of foreclosures and the rest of our financial down spiral… "You mean I have to pay for all of that?…you meant that is my problem?” Those people, those Americans were raised by what amounts to negligent parents that created self righteous, irresponsible children who were never or insufficiently punished for wrong doing.

Final note. Several Marines and a Navy Corpsman died recently in an ambush a few hours north of me. They had recently visited a village to see how they could help them. When they returned days later with some goods, food, and medical supplies, the villagers had tipped off the enemy and a bloodbath ensued. It has been reported that women and children were seen giving the men ammunition and grenades during the battle. That is the thanks America gets. I am not sure I understand why anything in that district is still standing…it should have all been turned into a glass parking lot.

Do I have a bad attitude about Afghanistan now? No, I have a different one. I still think it is a beautiful country with interesting people. The people that I liked before, I still like them, but I know that most of them have a twisted idea of right and wrong and are more concerned with themselves than their fellow man.

The link below is from the AP a few weeks ago.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jG_2tsp8fZWr0GRo6QuqU4ybqr0gD9ALRB2G0%22%3EAfghanQ&A

I had a blast on leave and look forward to coming home real soon. The latest news on the street is early December. I miss you all. God bless. Geaux Tigers.

BMP

Video

21 August

New road built for base access. The construction is pretty low quality, but it sure looks good.


What do you do when the Americans pay to have your dirt road rebuilt and black topped? Why, hell, you cover it with dirt to protect it!

The view from one of the guard towers...I've been telling them for months they need to cut the trees.

They decided to listen 2 days before elections.

Farming technique. They completely clear the fields and then let the sheep graze for a few hours to get all the scrap grass.

Full week. It wasn’t a long one because I was busy the whole time. I find that staying busy is the key to success during these long times away from home. Additionally, keeping a routine helps the days pass seamlessly. For the past month, my focus has been on election security for my FOB and mentoring the ANA security company. Election day came and went just like any other day for us. Others were not so lucky. I tracked fighting all over the country yesterday. Many FOBs filled with “regular guys” just like me were mortared throughout the day and night. The enemy used intimidation tactics on the public, but for the most part, the polls were not attacked significantly in our area. At the time of this posting, I don’t know of any significant attacks in the country that disrupted the overall election process.
A few notes/quotes on the election from some of the people I talk to daily:
1. “If it came down to one or two votes, I’d vote for the other guy, but I will vote for Karzai b/c he will win.”
2. “I will vote for Karzai b/c he is known.”
3. “I will vote for Karzai b/c he will win.”
It seems that Karzai will get re-elected b/c of the Afghan attitude that picking someone else is like admitting you were wrong 4yrs ago. They want to vote for the winner b/c they want to be right. Some view themselves as no worse than 4 years ago, so electing someone else is seen as a grave risk.
The contractors that are doing construction on the FOB were not allowed on from the 18th through the 21st, so it has been peaceful and quiet around here without the constant rumble of cement mixers and power tools. That will all change again tomorrow, but for now, the silence is nice.
Finished another book this week. This one was a non-fiction look into the Army’s elite Delta Force. Pretty good book about how the counter terrorist tactics of today were dreamed up over the last 30yrs in the minds of some of the fiercest fighting men to ever wear the uniform. It also sheds light on the fact that America is at war constantly. Whether it is 150,000 in Iraq, 60,000 in Afghanistan, or 3 men in a country that most people don’t know we have issues with, American service men are out there killin’ people that need killin’. Still, the politicians and career minded brass tie the hands of our fighting men; thus, terrorism shows up on our door step from time to time.

Note regarding previous post on Muslims imposing their way of life on others:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,539864,00.html?test=latestnews

This rule was later repealed because it is stupid.

Last entry before I come home for leave. I start my travels next Thursday and should be home around the 1st.
Looking forward to spending some time at home.
Have a good one. God Bless.
BMP

15 AUG

Only in AF can you get a tire mark on a guard tower 4ft off the ground over a concrete barrier and have no one around to explain how it was physically possible.


Delicious bread. Naan is cooked in this mud oven. You can pretty much see the stages from the round dough balls in the center, to the flat circles of dough on the right, and the finished product on the left. They press the flat dough onto an upside down metal bowl type object and then slam that up against the ceiling of the oven. The dough sticks to the mud and the bread bakes between the mud wall and the bowl. It is 120F outside this building and hotter inside.



M16 Training

16 Aug
Weeks are flying by quicker and quicker…a sign that I am getting busier and busier. I have spent most of this week pushing to finish election security projects and helping the ANA do the same. Didn’t have the day off Friday due to planning a security mission for the elections.
I was given a directive to train the ANA up on the M16A2 weapons system. No, problem. The Afghan Ministry of Defense (MOD) has been given a bunch of these and their plan is to trade them out for the battered AK47s, some of which are 50yrs old. The problem is that I was told to train them and qualify them in less than a week and a half. So, what did I do? Said, “Yes, sir, I’ll make it happen.” NOTICE: Expectation management failure.
Wednesday was a very frustrating morning. I nearly lost my voice trying to hammer too much information into their heads too fast. I realized it mid morning and vowed to get it under control. I went back Thursday with a different/reasonable attitude that they were going to learn at whatever pace they learn, and I was going to have to slow down the teaching to more closely match that pace. Thursday was much better. I will not issue any weapons before the elections because they will not be familiar enough with them to be combat effective. I may take some heat for this, but it is the right answer and it is what is safest.
Other than election security, I haven’t been up to too much. Spend a few minutes a day watching the news. Seems like health care and clunkers have the spotlight right now. We get AFN (American Forces Network), which has one channel of each variety: sports, news, prime time tv, radio station etc. The news is rotated between the major networks and cable news channels throughout the day. So you’ll be sitting listening to O’Reilly bash some bad plan and after the commercial, Rachel Maddow comes on and bashes O’Reilly. I get to see all sides of the story, but never the truth of course. All of these people are paid to talk, and talk they do. If you don’t know who Rachel Maddow is, look her up, and make sure you have a garbage can nearby. As far as I am concerned, she is anti-American and spends more time attacking conservatives than conservative policy or proposing her own ideas. Both sides are guilty of this from the anchors to the politicians.

Check out what the Great Communicator had to say about socialized medicene 48 years ago:

http://www.mikechurch.com/joomla/daily-features/ronald-reagan-predicts-58-years-ago-the-effects-of-socalism.html

Which leads me to ask everyone to look at goooh.com. GOOOH (Get Out Of Our House) is a political idea to replace all 435 members of the House of Representatives with everyday people that will make a decision based on what they believe is right and wrong, not what will get them support in the next election or appease a special interest group. There is only one special interest group that counts, and that is the American people. Just because one group of people decides to exercise a certain right doesn’t make them special, it makes them American. Goooh recently sent out an email that was rather thought provoking. The text went something like this: The federal gvt just took over a portion of the car industry…months later, they develop a program that gives people up to $4500 to give their old car up for a new one, thus incurring a new monthly payment and getting money flowing to the gvt owned auto industry. Hmmm? Sounds like a hidden bail out to me. Additionally, didn’t we just tell everyone to chill out on financing crap they cannot afford.
What about the “turned in vehicles?” They must be drained of vital fluids and have the engines rendered useless on the lot and scrapped entirely. No recycling of any parts…that is really green guys…good job.

Check out these videos of Aghans dancing. Remember, they have parties all the time for weddings and engagements with up to 1000 people. Men and women are kept separate and there is no alcohol…enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5-_5Bga4_s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI53lsAIkWA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIxPV8IvOSs&NR=1

Counting down the days. God bless and have a great weekend.
BMP