This is the group of gentlemen who will more than likely comprise my last course with MPRI/Herat Region.  At least for this contract period.  I was told that February would not be a good month to conduct a class.  As I’m leaving, I didn’t really fight it that much.  I’ll try to get guys in to do conversion work shops over on Camp Zafar and I might try to go out to a couple of places.  After that, I’m out the door.

I’ve got less than two months to go and I’m pretty excited about getting home for a while.  It will be nice to spend time with family.  Really looking forward to seeing and spending time with Momma.  I don’t know what else I’ll do or where I’ll go while I’m back there.  Plan on playing it by ear.  No specific plans other than the SEC Tournament.

I’ll spend a day or two in Dubai after I depart Kabul and then go on to the US.

The guys in this class, as usual, did not bring their information.  They kept saying; “Oh yes, we have everything. We are prepared.”  Then we finally sit down to start the conversion to the new system and they tell me that they do not have the correct information.  One guy brought his maintenance documentation.  Another guy brought his furnishings and housing data.  No one brought anything about end items or weapons, vehicles or comms gear.  I just laughed.  Business as usual.

We’ve made some decent progress over here.  Not near as much as I would have liked.  But with the assets available and the paltry support from most of the military, I feel we did a pretty good job for the time we’ve been here.

Being over here.  In Afghanistan.  In the midst of religious civil war.  I have come to the conclusion that religion is madness.  All Religion.  Islam and Christianity especially.

Today, I gave the Regional Commander a Jayavarman VII statue.  Just thought it would be a cool gift.  I told him the story of JVII.  How he is the most revered of the kings of the Ancient Khmer Empire.  How he came to be revered and admired because of his dedication to the people in that he built schools, hospitals, roads, aqueducts and other infrastructure in and around Angkor for the people.  That he cared for the people.  And I spoke a bit about how the people of Afghanistan and the people of Cambodia have much in common.  That the Khmer people lost their way and descended into madness but eventually found their way out.  That the Afghans had followed a similar path and that I hoped that they would finally find their way out.

The taliban and the Khmer Rouge have many similarities in that they both wanted to erase history and start over from year one.  They were both murderous regimes who cared not for the people but for an ideology.  Both were violent and oppressive.  Both disgusting stains upon the history of humanity.

Both should be eradicated.  But we know this will not happen.  Even as we fight the taliban, we strengthen them.  We pay them off.  We seek a moderate taliban where none exist.  Not in the sense that we in the West understand moderation.  Moderate to a talib simply means that they don’t go to war at the drop of a hat.  All taliban believe in Sharee’ah.  They all believe that women have no rights.  They all believe in a soul crushing, medieval Islam that corrupts the soul and enslaves women and non-beleivers.  That Obama and Bush believed that we could come to an agreement with these folks only highlights the ignorance of the politicians of the West.  That our leaders are willling to talk to these decrepit, souless men only shows the corruption that exists in the hearts and souls of our political leadership.  They are all disgusting to me.

But!  It’s time for me to move on.  Find my own life and a new path to follow.

Fare thee well, Afghanistan.  Until we meet again.  I’ll miss ya.  But I’m happy as hell to be going out of here.

Go Big Blue!

.

…..