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From a Recon Marine in Afghanistan
blog ^

Posted on 01/07/2009 6:19:19 AM PST by Kimmers

Here is a US Marine who is not afraid to tell it like it is. Political Correctness doesn't mean beans to this tough young warrior.

>From a Recon Marine in Afghanistan

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 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 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, 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 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. It's what they do. It's 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. Cavemen with AK47'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 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 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


TOPICS: Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; usmc; wot
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To: NTHockey
(50 years ago today, I started boot camp at Parris Island Platoon 102)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1673149/posts?page=16

21 posted on 01/07/2009 7:28:41 AM PST by ErnBatavia ("Zero"..STILL using that stupid "Office of The President Elect" podium....)
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To: Kimmers

If you go to youtube and watch some of the Viper videos..it will give you an idea of what these guys go through.

The villages are empty of men (except very old or very young) because they join up to fight..

the soldiers hand out things to the villagers trying to win the hearts and minds.....it is a good idea....does it work?
I doubt it.

And like Vietnam..they use women and children to help in their fight.

In one broadcast the soldier talks about how he just saw a woman scurry away talking in radio..and he figured they were just about to get attacked..and they did.

In my heart, I do not believe it is a war we can win.

But what is the alternative?

And sadly, even if villagers wanted to help..they are threatened by the Taliban.

Soldiers post on anysolder about how these families are so poor ,live in mud huts with no doors, have no shoes, no way to protect themselves during the winter..nothing even to make fire except feces..which doesnt last long...

It is a very bad situation...for everyone.

I box up clothes, and toys, and treats to give to these people....hoping it will help the soldiers in some way..even if it is just once...and hope that the person who gets my things doesn’t end up killing them.


22 posted on 01/07/2009 7:49:34 AM PST by RummyChick
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To: Kimmers
This is an inhospitable, rock pit shit hole ruled by eleventh century warring tribes.

I think he's trying to make the place sound better than it is. I don't know that the tribes have made it into the eleventh century yet...
23 posted on 01/07/2009 8:51:28 AM PST by philled ("I prefer messy democracy to the stability of tyrants." -- Howar Ziad, Iraqi Ambassador to Canada)
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To: Kimmers

Bookmark


24 posted on 01/07/2009 9:21:22 AM PST by Desron13 (If you constantly vote between the lesser of two evils then evil is your ultimate destination.)
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To: Pistolshot

'Nuff Said
25 posted on 01/07/2009 10:09:20 AM PST by Red Reign (Storm clouds gather. Fear not, it's a Red Reign that's coming.)
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To: Retired COB

thank you for your service sir and welcome home.


26 posted on 01/07/2009 12:53:37 PM PST by madamemayhem (there is only one race and that is the human race. everything else is window dressing.)
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To: madamemayhem
thank you for your service sir and welcome home.

And I salute you for your service. I sincerely hope that the Democrats don't defund your war effort like they did mine....I worry about that. If we don't kill them over there, they're going to be coming over here after us eventually.

I have a nephew who is a 1st Lt in the First Mountain Division in country now. He's a level headed kid, and he knows exactly why he's over there. I have another nephew that was wounded in Iraq (sniper fire - shot through the left forearm). He just reenlisted and is ready to go back. I'm so proud of these guys that I find it hard to put into words.

27 posted on 01/08/2009 6:43:28 AM PST by Retired COB (Still mad about Campaign Finance Reform)
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To: All

wow


28 posted on 06/04/2010 10:28:39 PM PDT by amom (Proud Blue Star Mom of a US Army tanker)
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To: Kimmers
Good evening. A good post if true or not true.

Given that I've been a grunt in the ME (long time ago), the story rings true to me.

[Sidebar: the only way to "catch" bin Laden is to find some gooey red mist on a cave wall (if you can tunnel into the cave), and give the FBI something to test for DNA].

5.56mm

29 posted on 06/04/2010 10:43:23 PM PDT by M Kehoe
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To: Kimmers

Huns is a good description but I think the Huns were better organized.


30 posted on 06/05/2010 5:10:48 PM PDT by culpeper (He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people,)
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I have said it before and I will say it again. The only reason that we can’t find Bin Laden is because he is sitting on a ranch in Texas. Its well known that his family owns property there.

As to this posting, It is so true. You can’t logically argue with that logic. Without guns we would not be were we are today and well the Indians would of over ran us with their bows and arrows when we first got here if we didn’t have muskets to scare them off.


31 posted on 06/06/2010 12:21:58 PM PDT by Summer98
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