Scorpions, Chiggers & Sand Fleas From a Recon Marine in Afghanistan From the Sand Pit. Its freezing here. Im sitting on hard cold dirt between rocks and shrubs at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains , along the Daryoi 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. Ive actually given up battling the chiggers and sand fleas, but the 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 thats 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. Its all about intelligence. We havent even brought in the snipers yet. These scurrying rats have no idea what theyre in for. We are but days away from cutting off supply lines and allowing the eradication to begin. But you know me, Im a romantic. Ive said it before and Ill say it again: This country blows, man. Its not even a country. There are no roads, theres no infrastructure, theres 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. Thats 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 thats 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. Ive been living with these Tajiks and Uzbeks, and 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. Its what they do. Its 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 others barbarism. Cavemen with AK-47s. Then again, maybe Im just cranky. Im freezing my ass off on this stupid hill because my lap warmer is running out of juice, and I cant 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, theyre real smart. Theyve 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. Theyre 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 Im 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. Weve got this one under control The worst thing you guys can do right now is sit around analyzing what were doing over here, because you have no idea what were doing, and really, you dont want to know. We are your military, and we are doing what you sent us here to do. Saucy Jack Recon Marine in Afghanistan Semper Fi Freedom is not free...but the U.S. Marine Corps will pay most of your share.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 19:33:47 +0000
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