Over the past few days, I’ve gleefully made disparaging remarks about my contempt for certain aspects of Afghan culture, most of which revolve around treating their women-folk like crap. And I stand by those remarks.
But, as I’ve observed over the past few months here, we’re not blameless either. We have some seriously screwed-up practices and policies that, at the very least, undercut our efforts at winning the hearts and minds.
Take, for instance, our efforts to protect and reward those Afghanis who work with us in what is, for them, an extremely hostile environment. They work on base, they serve as interpreters and translators, and a provide host of other functions. We offer to help some of them get visas to migrate to the States. And then we drop the ball.
I shuttled around with Doug, my sergeant major, as he tried to track down a visa package for one such individual. Educated, supportive of the cause, working with our troops for years. His visa package has been in the works for five years. Yes, five years. It gets so far, then we do the annual RIP/TOA (Relief In Place/Transfer Of Authority) and the paperwork gets misplaced. So it starts again. Lucky for him that Doug has been here for years and is able to follow up. He’s still working as a translator, still keeping the faith, despite our best efforts to make him throw his hands up in frustration.
Okay, I’m off the soapbox.
At breakfast this morning, while working on a Ramadan-wich (bacon and ham muffin breakfast sandwich), I began to feel like I was trapped in a Family Guy episode. Two of our youngsters were arguing about which sexy female cartoon character would win a mud wrestling match. After much debate, they settled on She-Ra, Princess of Power (and sister to He-Man), as the presumptive champion mud-wrestler. The things we do for entertainment here …
As I sit here writing this post, gentle readers, you should know that I have ten days left in country. TEN! Then on to Qatar for out-processing, then vacation, then home. But fear not, I’ll keep writing through the end of my reintegration process back home.
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