A week ago it was 15 degrees cold and I had to go downtown for a meeting. I got on the train and after getting half way downtown got an email that the meeting was cancelled. However the trip was not in vain as I had a small errand to take care of BUT it could have waited. I did what I needed to do then headed back to the train station for the 1:30 pm train and I MISS IT!!!! ARRGH! So I waited for the 2:30 pm and arrive back in Barrington around 3:45 pm and get home at 4 pm.
When I arrived home there was a box on the front porch. One of those PRICELESS moments has taken place.
A BOX FROM AFGHANISTAN...WOOHOO!!!!
Now mind you I'm not sure this is a belated gift for us or a souvenir for Keefe Murtaugh. None the less it brightened my day! Thank you Lt. Murtaugh!!!!! You are the best!!! Nothing like Christmas in February and the Lenten Season. I must have screwed up his liturgical sensibilities. ;) BUT WE HAVE A POP UP USMC CHRISTMAS TREE! Oh yeah it has lights as well!! LOL!!!!
Since the package arrived, I've chatted with Keefe very briefly on Facebook. It turns out this was his Christmas tree for the holidays. Still does not take the shine away from my day last week. :)
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Today the Chicago area is expecting a winter mix of rain, ice and snow. The forecast sounds familiar to my ears. Oh yeah, last Tuesday 15 degrees, rain, ice and snow. Well at least it will be in the 30's today. Although there is not much sun today, my heart is shining brightly. I am counting the days till Keefe and 2/7 are safely back in the USA. It will be the longest 6-8 weeks of my life.
On the other hand I am bothered by what is being left behind. I have many, many questions. I realize there are no easy answers but I still have questions. Did over 10 years of war and occupation really help? Couldn't we have gotten Bin Laden without sacrificing over a 1,000 of the young men and women who served in the multinational forces? Have we in Western Society not learned the lesson that you can't impose your culture and way of life on people? Why can't we accept that people live differently and that's not all bad? It's what makes this world such a wonderful creation. Questions! Questions! ????????
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After reading articles like the one below about life in Helmand Province, I begin to understand my son's frustration and shake my head even more at the time and effort that has been spent in Afghanistan.
25 February 2013
Last updated at 08:12 ET - BBC
Ben Anderson witnessed corruption and criminality among the Afghan police. BBC
Panorama reporter Ben Anderson spent five weeks with US Marines working
to advise Afghan security forces in Helmand province. While he was
there, he witnessed corruption and criminality among the Afghan police
force.
Most police forces investigate crimes like corruption, kidnapping, drug use, murder and child abuse. But in Sangin - the most violent district in Afghanistan - these are crimes that some of the police commit.
Politicians insist the handover to the Afghan security forces is going smoothly and that they will be able to maintain security as the allied forces withdraw.
On a recent visit to Helmand, UK Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the "transition is proceeding very well - it is on track. "The Afghans are developing capabilities faster than we expected and we have every reason to believe that they will be able to maintain security as the Isaf forces draw down," he added.
The outgoing commander of Nato forces, Gen John Allen, is even more ebullient: "Afghan forces are defending Afghan people and enabling the government of this country to serve its citizens. This is victory. This is what winning looks like, and we should not shrink from using these words."
The reality in Sangin is very different.
I spent five weeks embedded with US Marines, who took over the region from British troops in 2010. I hoped to gain a true sense of what progress has been made in readying the Afghan forces to secure the area. During my time in Sangin, just two teams of 18 US Marines went out every few days to advise the Afghan army and police across the district. The remaining American forces have withdrawn to the main forward operating base, which they rarely leave. Because of the growing risk of deadly insider - or "green on blue" - attacks, the Americans live completely apart from their Afghan counterparts. Whenever the Americans enter the Afghan side of the base, they have their weapons cocked, ready to fire. When they did go out, what the marines saw was far from encouraging. At one checkpoint, the Afghan police were openly smoking marijuana. Two other police officers, assigned to fill sandbags to fortify a watchtower, were high on something stronger - probably opium or heroin. When one of the police commanders was shot, three weeks after I left, the American medics who saved him found a bag of heroin in his pocket.
USMC Major Bill Steuber is leading the police advisory team, and spends much of his time at headquarters with the police leadership. He said corruption is rampant, and even compared it to the American television show The Sopranos.
"It's vast," he said, "everything from skimming ammunition off their supplies to skimming fuel off their shipments. "There's false imprisonment - they'll take people during an
engagement, and they'll just wrap everyone up, then they'll wait for the
families to come in and pay them money to be able to release them." He said the police sometimes sell ammunition and weapons in
the local bazaar, including rocket-propelled grenades. So weapons paid
for by the allied forces could well be ending up in the hands of the
Taliban. In one instance, a patrol base was deemed unsafe to stay in
because the Afghan police were selling off the security walls as scrap
metal. Major Steuber said the foreign military working here have to accept the limitations on what they can hope to achieve. He said that because the Afghan police were unable to sustain
themselves, sometimes corruption was the only way they could function. "If we were to go in and shut
down all of their schemes, all of their corruption schemes, you would
render them completely ineffective," he said.
But there are issues Major Steuber said need to be tackled head-on - including the sexual abuse of young boys by local police commanders. On every police base I visited in Sangin, there were young boys: some were armed, and some looked like servants. They are known as "chai boys". Major Steuber says they are often sexually abused. The problem is widespread. While I was in Sangin, four boys were shot while trying to escape police commanders, three of them fatally. None of the commanders responsible were arrested. Sangin Deputy Police Chief Qhattab Khan admitted this abuse is taking place, and promised to take action. He told Major Steuber: "The kids themselves want to stay at the patrol bases and give their bodies at night… There is no humanity. There is no military command". Mr Khan retired before any action was taken to free the chai boys. To date they have not been released. "Try doing that day in, day out," said Major Steuber, "working with child molesters, working with people who are robbing people, murdering them. It wears on you after a while." The Afghan government says it is fighting corruption and that the police and armed forces are ready and willing to take full responsibility for the security of their country. Ministry of Interior Spokesman Sediq Sediqi, said the Afghan Government would investigate the claims of corruption and abuse, highlighted by Panorama. But from what I saw, corruption and criminality are widespread among the police in Sangin. This is exactly the kind of behaviour that led many Afghans to welcome the Taliban when they swept to power in 1996. Is this what all the fighting and bloodshed has been for?
Ben Anderson has traveled to Helmand province many times since 2007. He has written a book about his experiences there - No Worse Enemy.
Panorama: Mission Accomplished? Secrets of Helmand, BBC One, Monday, 25 February at 20:30 GMT
Afghan police accused of corruption and child abuse
Ben Anderson witnessed corruption and criminality among the Afghan police. BBC
Panorama reporter Ben Anderson spent five weeks with US Marines working
to advise Afghan security forces in Helmand province. While he was
there, he witnessed corruption and criminality among the Afghan police
force.
Most police forces investigate crimes like corruption, kidnapping, drug use, murder and child abuse. But in Sangin - the most violent district in Afghanistan - these are crimes that some of the police commit.
Politicians insist the handover to the Afghan security forces is going smoothly and that they will be able to maintain security as the allied forces withdraw.
On a recent visit to Helmand, UK Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the "transition is proceeding very well - it is on track. "The Afghans are developing capabilities faster than we expected and we have every reason to believe that they will be able to maintain security as the Isaf forces draw down," he added.
The outgoing commander of Nato forces, Gen John Allen, is even more ebullient: "Afghan forces are defending Afghan people and enabling the government of this country to serve its citizens. This is victory. This is what winning looks like, and we should not shrink from using these words."
I spent five weeks embedded with US Marines, who took over the region from British troops in 2010. I hoped to gain a true sense of what progress has been made in readying the Afghan forces to secure the area. During my time in Sangin, just two teams of 18 US Marines went out every few days to advise the Afghan army and police across the district. The remaining American forces have withdrawn to the main forward operating base, which they rarely leave. Because of the growing risk of deadly insider - or "green on blue" - attacks, the Americans live completely apart from their Afghan counterparts. Whenever the Americans enter the Afghan side of the base, they have their weapons cocked, ready to fire. When they did go out, what the marines saw was far from encouraging. At one checkpoint, the Afghan police were openly smoking marijuana. Two other police officers, assigned to fill sandbags to fortify a watchtower, were high on something stronger - probably opium or heroin. When one of the police commanders was shot, three weeks after I left, the American medics who saved him found a bag of heroin in his pocket.
USMC Major Bill Steuber is leading the police advisory team, and spends much of his time at headquarters with the police leadership. He said corruption is rampant, and even compared it to the American television show The Sopranos.
"It's vast," he said, "everything from skimming ammunition off their supplies to skimming fuel off their shipments. "There's false imprisonment - they'll take people during an
engagement, and they'll just wrap everyone up, then they'll wait for the
families to come in and pay them money to be able to release them." He said the police sometimes sell ammunition and weapons in
the local bazaar, including rocket-propelled grenades. So weapons paid
for by the allied forces could well be ending up in the hands of the
Taliban. In one instance, a patrol base was deemed unsafe to stay in
because the Afghan police were selling off the security walls as scrap
metal. Major Steuber said the foreign military working here have to accept the limitations on what they can hope to achieve. He said that because the Afghan police were unable to sustain
themselves, sometimes corruption was the only way they could function. "If we were to go in and shut
down all of their schemes, all of their corruption schemes, you would
render them completely ineffective," he said.
But there are issues Major Steuber said need to be tackled head-on - including the sexual abuse of young boys by local police commanders. On every police base I visited in Sangin, there were young boys: some were armed, and some looked like servants. They are known as "chai boys". Major Steuber says they are often sexually abused. The problem is widespread. While I was in Sangin, four boys were shot while trying to escape police commanders, three of them fatally. None of the commanders responsible were arrested. Sangin Deputy Police Chief Qhattab Khan admitted this abuse is taking place, and promised to take action. He told Major Steuber: "The kids themselves want to stay at the patrol bases and give their bodies at night… There is no humanity. There is no military command". Mr Khan retired before any action was taken to free the chai boys. To date they have not been released. "Try doing that day in, day out," said Major Steuber, "working with child molesters, working with people who are robbing people, murdering them. It wears on you after a while." The Afghan government says it is fighting corruption and that the police and armed forces are ready and willing to take full responsibility for the security of their country. Ministry of Interior Spokesman Sediq Sediqi, said the Afghan Government would investigate the claims of corruption and abuse, highlighted by Panorama. But from what I saw, corruption and criminality are widespread among the police in Sangin. This is exactly the kind of behaviour that led many Afghans to welcome the Taliban when they swept to power in 1996. Is this what all the fighting and bloodshed has been for?
Ben Anderson has traveled to Helmand province many times since 2007. He has written a book about his experiences there - No Worse Enemy.
Panorama: Mission Accomplished? Secrets of Helmand, BBC One, Monday, 25 February at 20:30 GMT
