The grunt's perspective. . .

[John D Harris]

This is from a Marine "recon" commando...
The language here is a little frank, but I thought this was a unique insight into what is going on in Afghanistan right now, and how our troops are making out. Sounds like technology has invaded the front lines (at least on one side).


The following was read on the Sully and Scooter (Radio KOGO in San
Diego) Show on Nov. 17:

Just outside of Ab Gach, in the northwest panhandle of Afghanistan
between Tajikstan and Pakistan, November 11, 2001.
It's (expletive) 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 them (expletive) 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 a bloody ear 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, rockpit (expletive) 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.
And let me tell you something else. I've been living with these Tajiks and Uzbeks and Turkmen and even a couple of Pushtins 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. Its what they do. Its ALL they do. They have no respect for anything, not for their families or for each other or 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. (Expletive) cavemen with AK 47's.

Then again, maybe I'm just cranky. I'm freezing my (expletive) off on this stupid (expletive) 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, Write a letter to CNN and tell Judy and Bernie 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. Snuffle 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 getting good at it. Please tell my fellow Americans to turn off their TV sets
and move on with their lives. The story line you are getting from CNN is
utter (expletive) 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. You wanna help? Buy some (expletive) stocks, America.
Saucy Jack

[Magness]

That was very interesting reading. (I'm assuming that it was legit.)

Y'know, I think that's the kind of thing that really helps to make a little more human, helps to see things from the soldier's point of view. I like to see a Rumsfeld new conference as much as anybody, but that official DOD news tends to be very sanitized. This helps to see the military perspective from (as you say) the grunt's perspective.

[Ladyzekke]

Thanks for posting that Mr. Harris. It confirmed a lot of questions as to what it is like over there in Afghanistan, and then some! It also gives a good inside view as to what our soldiers are going through and their living conditions over there. A very interesting read..