From a recon Marine in Afghanistan

[CosmicCowboy]

Not really political but I thought it was pretty good...


From a Recon Marine in Afghanistan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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 butt 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 *******. 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 m y 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 **** 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 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 fights 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 *** 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 bull**** 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

[boutons_deux]

As one Afghan leader said, the US has the watch, but Afganistan has the time.

"we are doing what you sent us here to do"

Avoiding saying what that "what" is. Does Mr Recon Marine know?

The original objective was getting suckered into foreign lands where AQ and friends could kill more Americans than they ever could in USA.

Enemies killing Americans in foreign lands, so they don't have to kill Americans in USA.

Where American targets costs US taxpayers $1M/year per target.

Now that AQ is out of Afghanistan, what is the objective, Mr. Recon Marine?

If you "got this one under control", then why does MacChrystal need 40K more bad ass "controllers"?

Again, what is the objective?

[Wild Cobra]

I've read parts of letters people have shared with me from the area. More people need to see such things.

[spursncowboys]

Good letter. I didn't know Marines could write. ayyyoooohhh

[boutons_deux]

I've got nothing against the soldiers. Brave or stupid, thanks for whatever. But I'd rather have them all back, safe, in USA, NOW!

I repeat:

"what is the objective?"

And if the military braves are kicking ass over there, "under control", what's taking 8 (and many more) years?

[Wild Cobra]

I repeat:

"what is the objective?"

What's the point of reiterating it again. You don't agree anyway.

[Nbadan]

'Saucy Jack
Recon Marine'

....nice credibility there...this guy cared so much for his work he made it verifiable..

.... 3 - 1 its a fake...

[clambake]

pat tillman's brother wrote a great letter.

[spursncowboys]

'Saucy Jack
Recon Marine'

....nice credibility there...this guy cared so much for his work he made it verifiable..

.... 3 - 1 its a fake...

Sounds like the over sized egos of a marine. recon scouts do this kind of thing. They are pretty bad ass at their job. I doubt this is going to make a difference in the overall war. We did this kind of thing in Iraq. I thought it would make an impact at the time and a week later found out the war was still goin on. Oh well. Good for him.

[boutons_deux]

there's 1000s more Taleban and Muslim terrorists, and more being recruited/created everyday, than there are US military in Afghanistan.

[Bartleby]

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/freezing.asp

[spursncowboys]

there's 1000s more Taleban and Muslim terrorists, and more being recruited/created everyday, than there are US military in Afghanistan.

I don't think there are that many recruits going over to the terrorists. I probably sustains a slow growth from the same tribes and churches but I doubt it is still getting the huge influxes it had gotten from the months right after 9-11, Mogadishu, and the 92 WTC bombing.

[Nbadan]

Someone owes me money..

[boutons_deux]

snif, so kick-ass Recon Marine won't answer my questions?

[Oh, Gee!!]

whoever sends CC these chain e-mails is backlogged about 8 years since the letter is from 2001.