Ares: A Defense Technology Blog

Courage Personified

Meet Mahboob Aimaq, who was born in northeast Afghanistan 25 years ago.

I had the privilege of spending a couple of hours with him on my recent journey there.  He works as an advisor to DynCorp International, the Washington-based defense contractor who's training Afghan national police, de-mining the country and helping to eradicate the poppy crop on behalf of the U.S. State Dept.  As we chatted, I couldn't help think about what my world was like when I was 25. The visit with Mahboob left me with a profound sense of respect for him and his countrymen. It also left me feeling very sad and wondering whether I truly appreciate where I live, what I do and what I have.

Danger! UXO

Flying into Kabul International Airport — or any number of small landing strips in neighboring provinces in Afghanistan — the scene looks placid enough. Majestic mountains form the backdrop to vast stretches of land dotted with teetering ruins and mud and cement dwellings surrounded by walls that look like they could be centuries old. In the distance sit the remains of institutional-looking apartment buildings that housed  Soviet soldiers during their occupation throughout the 1980s. There are no apparent signs of danger, but appearances often are deceiving. (At right, a Russian IL-76 transport taxies toward a hangar. Apartments that housed Soviet soldiers are in the distance, just to the right of center.)

Setback

Dubai, UAE ­ "Matter of Shame," screamed the headline on the op/ed page in Thursday's edition of the Khaleej Times.

In the editorial, the English-language newspaper castigated American military forces operating in Afghanistan after a U.S.-led coalition airstrike against the Taliban near Jalalabad went terribly wrong earlier this week. Twenty-one civilians, including women and children, were killed.

Taliban fighters had been hiding in a house in the Sangin district of Helmand province, where the Taliban is heavily entrenched.  Helmand is the largest opium producer in the country, and the U.S. has stepped up operations in recent months in an effort to drive out the most dangerous antigovernment groups, including insurgents crossing the border from neighboring Pakistan. The civilian deaths were tragic, and if the air strike was indiscriminate or the result of sloppy planning, then there should be accountability -- especially considering this wasn't the first mishap on this scale.

This Is Not A Drill

Kabul, Afghanistan -- The difference between life and death in the pursuit of international peacekeeping often comes down to nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Tragically, that was the case for two American soldiers not far from my location yesterday afternoon.

I was being briefed on the training of Afghan National Police (ANA) at Gardez when I couldn't help notice a flurry of activity in the back of the room. A minute or two later the person in charge of the security detail accompanying me suddenly announced our armored-vehicle convoy would have to take an alternate, unplanned route to our next location.  This was no drill, he said, and we needed to get under way immediately. (Earlier I was asked if I wanted to carry a weapon. My answer was an emphatic 'no!)

Reality Hits Home

Monday, May 7 -- My first night in Kabul, Afghanistan was in a well fortified, quasi-government compound located at the base of a 3,000-ft. mountain dotted with makeshift huts. Access to the facility is at the end of a single-lane, unpaved road lined with dilapidated, open-air mud-and-stone huts from which merchants sell a variety of goods. 

Both the restricted access and the towering mountain -- from which Taliban have a clear line of sight into the compound -- are major sources of concern.  For protection, many sections are fortified with walls of sandbags, and at every turn inside the camp are heavily armed Nepalese Gurka soldiers, known for their bravery and fierce fighting. They pack 5.56-cal. Squad Assault Weapons, 7.62-cal. machine guns and sniper rifles equipped with night vision scopes. Fortunately the compound is situated right next to where a powerful war lord lives with his family. That's no guarantee that the facility won't come under attack, but it does provide some degree of comfort.

Velocci's Afghanistan Journey

My sense is that for most people, the war in Afghanistan is distant and irrelevant. Except for family and close friends of men and women in uniform who are there serving their country, their daily lives go untouched. And so they rarely give a second thought to why the U.S. and its allies remain entrenched in Afghanistan nearly six years after 9/11.