Posted on 12/08/2009 11:57:36 AM PST by Constitutions Grandchild
I received this e-mail today. Pray for our troops and our Marines who have been in the forefront of the assault since Monday. I hope you enjoy this wonderful read from a "so-called" can't do anything else John Kerry called him. He can write for me anytime.
From a Recon Marine in Afghanistan. You got to read this!!! Scroll down.
From the Sand Pit.
It's 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 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 & storage facilities, type the info into the handheld, and 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, and 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 into his face and plunge my K-Bar 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, rock pit shit hole 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.
I've been living with these Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkmen, and even a couple of Pushtuns, 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. It's what they do. It's ALL they do! They have no respect for anything, not for their families, nor for each other, nor 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. Cavemen with AK-47's. Then again, maybe I'm just cranky.
I'm freezing my ass off on this stupid 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, Bizarre. Write a letter to CNN and tell Wolf and Anderson 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, hyenas, and wolverines. They are sneaky and ruthless, but 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 trying to figure 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 good at it.
Please, I tell you and my fellow Americans to turn off the TV sets and move on with your lives. The story line you are getting from CNN and other news agencies is utter bullshit 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 Bonds America
Saucy Jack
Recon Marine in Afghanistan
Semper Fi "Freedom is not free...but the U.S. Marine Corps will pay most of your share
Thanks for the post :O)
Our #3 son is headed there with the 101st in January.
Awesome letter. My thoughts and prayers go out to all service members, but my heart will always belong to the Corps. God bless all my brothers and sisters fighting for America.
Wish it were possible to email this to some friends—utterly brilliant.
Ain't no chiggers in Afghanistan like there are in North Carolina.
And there ARE camel spiders about as big as a small football - and mean. Wonder why he doesn't mention them?
Maybe the whole things is made up.
I sent it to my Marine son who said it was awesome, but probably made up.
Whether it's actual, or fake, it gives us all a pause to reflect, at this time of the year and the approaching holidays, on the sacrifices being made on our behalf by men, like this one, who are alone, cold and at the mercy of the elements. It IS winter in Afghanistan, and it IS the third day of the assault.
I hope, whether true or made-up, it reminds us all that our sons and daughters, wives and husbands, aunts and uncles and friends in the military aren't all having turkey with all the trimmings at the Green Zone chow hall, waving to family and friends back home. Some are freezing their buns off in the mountains of a very inhospitable land.
My daughter was sitting in an internet cafe in Doha, Qatar. She is redeploying to Afghanistan as soon as she can get a ride to Bagram Airfield.
This one is like the cbs news story about GWB. The facts are wrong but the narrative is right.
I do think the thoughts are valid. It is the narrative we all want to hear, that we're winning and cleaning up the mess so they can all come home.
I correspond with a Gny. Sgt. and a Sgt. (as well as my Candidate), and know they are very short on details. They sensor every picture they took while over there and have little to say to me — of course, to my son, they say more.
I just know that the Marines I've met have been exceptional. The Officers I've met are (from a mother's standpoint) adorable — young or old — they are just a comfortable fit with me. They're not all perfect, but they are perfectly authentic Marines.
I can't begin to consider losing any of them. They are so fit and strong, straight and their movements are so controlled (it's almost like watching a dancer). It was a shock to hear my son say he wanted to go to OCS, but every man and woman his decision has brought into my life has enriched my existence and lifted my soul — even when they're being knotheads — and they can be.
I see the effects of what those who have deployed in the frontal assaults have seen in their eyes. They don't think I can, but I do. I see the pain in the being of parents who have lost their child — they speak in terms of before their child died or after. Regular time passing is measured now in increments before or after the loss.
I also see what's happening to those who have gone “balls out” and done their job and then come home to charges of dereliction of duty or worse. It pains me. Who can say what I would do under that kind of pressure, and I've seen a lot in my 60 years.
I pray for their safety. I pray for them from the tippy-tippy top of their heads to the tippy-tippy bottom (as my son used to say when he was little) of their feet. I want them home, safe and sound — soon.
If I could arrange it, she’d have a limo. ;-) May every inch of her be safe and sound. Not even a hair singed.
While I’m thinking of it, please keep our Veterans who are hospitalized at this season of the year (and those who can never come home from the VA) in your thoughts. They need such basic things:
- Toothbrush & Toothpaste
- Deodorant
- Combs
- Knit Caps
- Slippers
- Socks
- Robes
- Hooded sweatshirts
- Chap Stick
- Razors
- Shaving Cream
In addition to those items requested from the hospital, there were items collected last year that were a success. The items from last year were:
- Candy (both sugar free and regular)
- Snack mix
- Chewing gum
- Chips
- Package crackers (Peanut butter)
- Chocolate
- Nuts
- Playing Cards
- Puzzle books
- Handheld games
None of these would break the bank to send to them at Christmas.
Thanks for your kind thoughts, CG. Her LIMO will have USAF stencilled on the fuselage, aka C-17.
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