Getting Short

It’s been eighteen months since I came to Afghanistan, and my time here is coming to a close. In mid-March I will leave my position and return home to my family and friends to start a new chapter in my book of life.

I have no personal regrets whatsoever. This has been a good experience, both personally and professionally. It does bother me, however, that we as a nation, and we as a coalition of nations, have not made more progress. We are still locked into a “one step forward, two steps back, two steps forward, one back,” box-step dance routine that leaves us standing where we started with little to show for it except for the blood and the grave markers.

As for the Afghans I have decidedly mixed feelings. There are several Afghans that I have come to know and respect. They are good men in any culture. Men like Haji Mohammad, Mirwais Noorzai, Ahmad Shah, Gul Ahmad, and Basir Tokhi. These men are willing to fight for Afghanistan as a nation, not just their tribe or ethnicity.

Unfortunately, men like these are overshadowed by the corrupt and the power hungry. But that’s no different than in our own country. Edmund Burke said it best when he said “All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.” The problem in Afghanistan is twofold – first, no one trusts anyone to allow them to do anything (similar to our own country, anymore) and second, 30 years of war has created a “get it while you can before the well goes dry” attitude among many. Thus, aid monies are pocketed, goods are misappropriated, and illegal activities are run by the same warlord/powerbrokers that we are trying to woo. Bank balances in the Emirates and Switzerland grow fatter, and, just as in America, the average citizen just gets stepped on.

As for the coalition effort, to include the US military effort… Never has so much been done by so many for so few who are so unappreciative. The Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, and Sailors (yes, surprisingly common to see various countries naval personnel running about) are, collectively, great. If it weren’t for the uniforms and the languages, there’d be little to tell them apart. The leadership is challenged, however, by a complex war that is run by complex rules. And, all of the troops and officers are people, and people make mistakes. The problem with a war is that mistakes can cost lives, sometimes many. Sometimes the consequences are immediate and due to one or two people, as in an airstrike called in last week by special operations forces that killed over a dozen civilians. That was definitely a “two-step back” day as relations with the Afghan people and government were very significantly affected.

Sometimes, the consequences are affect fewer people and are due to complacence, momentary inattention, or sometimes just plain bad luck. We had a pretty high speed MP Lieutenant here – her platoon was the first true MPs we had here. They’ve been working a subdistrict of Kandahar City. The other evening, her platoon was dismounted in a built-up area, checking things out. A motorcycle drove up and the rider got off and walked away as if going somewhere. The LT walked over towards the motorcycle – and then it detonated. A fragmentation device was in one of the saddlebags – probably remotely detonated. The bulk of the blast hit her in the upper legs. She lost one and they are fighting to save the other. It is a testament to the discipline she instilled in her platoon that there wasn’t a massacre of Afghans that night – she was well liked, but more importantly, well respected. She’s the second officer that I’ve known who has been gravely injured by IEDs. What a waste.

It’s time to go. Kipling nailed what is happening here over 100 years ago. He originally wrote “White Man’s Burden” as a commentary on the US Annexation of the Phillippines after the Spanish American War. But he based his commentary on his own experience living in India and the struggles of Great Britain and the Great Game. If “White Man’s” is too racist or politically sensitive, substitute "Western" – it doesn’t change the meter and applies equally well.

White Man’s Burden – 1899
by Rudyard Kipling

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

Take up the White Man's burden--
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper--
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.

Take up the White Man's burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up the White Man's burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.

Take up the White Man's burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!

Let’s hope that our peers judge us for our intentions as well as our actions and the consequences we’ve wrought.

Hooah
SLK