Monday, December 11, 2006

Afghanistan Perspective



Sgt Dub in Aghanistan

Afghanistan is a vast country of open spaces, mountains and desert, with plenty of caves to hide in. Yesterday I featured one hotspot of the world, Lebanon, and today I will focus on Afghanistan, again with a valued commenter, Sgt Dub, who is serving our nation there at Camp Phoenix. This is Sgt Dub's second trip to the country. He is a police officer and a member of the Oklahoma National Guard. His website,

SGTDUB is a great way to learn first-hand what the daily life of one soldier is like in that war zone.






There are about 19,500 American soldiers in Afghanistan, (see Deployments of the United States Military), following the invasion in 2001 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Around 6,500 other soldiers from the International Security Assistance Force are also deployed in Afghanistan.


The Afghanis

The Afghan People are a diverse group, estimated at 49% Pashtun, 18% Tajik, 9% Hazara, 8% Uzbek, 4% Aimak, 3% Turkmen, and 9% other.

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The CIA fact book on languages spoken in Afghanistan is as follows: Pashto 35%, Persian (Dari) 50%, both Indo-European languages from the Iranian languages sub-family. Others include Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 9%, as well as 30 minor languages 4% (primarily Balochi and Pashai and Nuristasni. Bilingualism is common.

Afghan Government
Afghanistan is currently led by President Hamid Karzai, who was elected in October 2004. While supporters have praised Karzai's efforts to promote national reconciliation and a growing economy, critics charge him with failing to rein in the country's warlords, inability to stem corruption and the growing drug trade, and the slow pace of reconstruction. The current parliament was elected in 2005. Among the elected officials were former mujahadeen, Taliban members, communists, reformists, and Islamic fundamentalists. 28% of the delegates elected were women, 3% more than the 25% minimum guaranteed under the constitution. This made Afghanistan, long known under the Taliban for its oppression of women, one of the leading countries in terms of female representation.

The Economy
Afghanistan is an extremely impoverished country, one of the world's poorest and least developed nations. Two-thirds of the population lives on less than US 2 dollars a day. The economy has suffered greatly from the recent political and military unrest since the 1979 Soviet invasion and subsequent conflicts, while severe drought added to the nation's difficulties in 1998-2001.

The economically active population in 2002 was about 11 million (out of a total of an estimated 29 million). While there are no official unemployment rate estimates available, it is evident that it is high. The number of non-skilled young people is estimated at 3 million, which is likely to increase by some 300,000 per annum.

As much as one-third of Afghanistan's GDP comes from growing poppy and illicit drugs including opium and its two derivatives, morphine and heroin, as well as hashish production.

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Problems

One problem in Afghanistan is the resurgence of the Taliban.

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Taliban and Allies Tighten Grip in North of Pakistan: New York Times. "THE BORDER with Pakistan has a military base in South Waziristan, an unruly region on the Afghan border that is dominated by local tribes. But one sign of how limited the Pakistani government's reach is here is that soldiers on a United States base nearby say they routinely see Taliban fighters cross the mountains at night." By CARLOTTA GALL and ISMAIL KHAN, Published: December 11, 2006.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan. Islamic militants are using a recent peace deal with the government to consolidate their hold in northern Pakistan, vastly expanding their training of suicide bombers and other recruits and fortifying alliances with Al Qaeda and foreign fighters, diplomats and intelligence officials from several nations say. The result, they say, is virtually a Taliban mini-state.

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Sgt Dub's Blog

Let's see some of the daily life of one of our nation's finest in Afghanistan. For a complete look at his site and posts, go to: SGTDUB.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2006

I'm a bad blogger. Last Friday, we had a bazaar on camp where we allow local Afghans come onto camp with the goods they sell. DVDs, CDs, fur coats, jewelry, marble chess sets, cups, bowls, old rifles, swords, clothing, everything you could need in a country. Well, I finally went down with my camera and took pictures to share. My only problem is I downloaded them on the office computer and I'm in my room. Now, it's after dark, and my office is almost 100 yds from here, so the inherent danger (I'm just too lazy) is just to great for me to risk, I will just have to remember again tomorrow to get them.

This morning we went to the running track for my morning PT. We did a 2-mile circuit training. With the temperature at 34 degrees and 4 laps around the track, I'm wiped out. The deep cold air hitting the lungs is grueling. Every time I got out of my chair my first 3 steps were a limp. My knees are what they were when I was running cross-country track.


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Overall it was a decent workout. We are suppose to be back out there Wednesday for a run. What's that word I'm looking for?.....yeah.
I told you I skipped Ab Lab Saturday night and avoided one of my LTs. Well, I talked with LT. S the next day and he described how he had got a mat for each of us and then waited in the circle for me to show up. He mentioned people would come up and he would tell them "this spot is saved" and I never showed up. I couldn't help but laugh at the picture I had in my head. I think he got me back today. I had to brief LTC Y and my slides were all messed up. Of course, Y and I go back several years and he thinks this is just par for the course with me. I muddled through it the best I can, and later in the brief, another LT takes his turn to find my good slides on his brief. To which I tell LTC Y, "I found my slides Sir"

Not much else to report today, be safe and have a good day.


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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2006

Today I got to play in an old Russian tank. Of course, it has long since been in running condition, but none the less, have you been in one. At approximately 5'10 and 240 lbs, it seems that the tank was not built for a man of my size.

In fact, as I was wedging myself into one of the openings, I found myself remember Winnie the Pooh, after having some honey at Rabbit's hole and then he got stuck, where he had to stay until he lost some weight. Well, fortunately, I made it out with no real problems. We had made a trip over to Pol-e-Charki today to service some of our Ford Ranger pickups and had time to waste.


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The service garage is much like the ones back home, (being built by Americans and Europeans does help), but back in the garage you can hear the old heavy rock blaring out to include Hotel California. The garage is supervised by some Russians and all the work is done by Afghans. This took up a good portion of my day.

We had one explosion down the road from our camp last night, the intended target appears to be the police. There are a couple of different reasons and a couple different theories out there. But nobody was hurt and only minor damage to the surrounding buildings. Tomorrow we hit the track for PT. Should be fun, I know I can't wait.....until spring....or summer. Not much else to report so be safe and have a good day.


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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 09, 2006

Today was another long day. I had more paperwork than usual and it involved contacting several different people. I'm working on acquiring some winter weather clothing and equipment for about 15 people. This was quite an easy task last time I was here, place a phone call, give them the numbers, send someone to sign for it and pick it up and distribute. Today, nobody wants to do it. I have contacted the two people it should go through, both said no problem. Next, I have to submit a form through Supply, he sends it up, they should forward it to the Bde J-4, then they make the call and then I go pick up the stuff. A few more steps but do-able. No, can't go like that. First, supply calls to find out why I want the stuff, so I explain.

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Next, the S-4 calls and wants a letter of justification and some type of documentation stating it's our responsibility. I got as far as sending the documentation, but haven't started on the justification yet. I'm sure it'll get approved by summer.

Next, since I have two Air Force personnel working for me, I have to do evaluations and award packets for them. I started this the same way we do our Army evaluations. Wrong, I have to use different terminology for Air Force and can't use specific bullet comments. So, I head down and talk to the Senior Air Force NCO in charge of my people and he helps me out with what he's looking for.

With such a long day, I headed over to the Self Help shop and finally started working on my desk for my room. I spent about 2 1/2 hours in there and finally stopped for the evening so I could eat dinner and relax for the evening. I may have to be real quiet here in my room for the next 20 minutes as one of my LTs wants me to go to the Ab Lab with him again tonight. I'm not wanting to and I just ate, but they are doing it 3 nights a week so I'll start up on Tuesday.

That's about all the fun I can share with you today. Be safe and have a good day.


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Our Thanks

Thank you, Sgt Dub, for your cogent reporting of the daily life of a soldier in Afghanistan, and for your patriotic service to our nation. Thanks also to all the servicemen serving there, and across the globe.

Rock


(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)

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