I am writing this on 9/12, at the close of 9/11 for you all in the states. I have reviewed all of the Intel reports today of actions yesterday (9/11), and didn't see any US soldiers killed over the last 2 days. What a blessing! I did see a very heartwarming story of the announcement of first living soldier of OIF/OEF (Operations Enduring and Iraq Freedom) to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. SSG Steven Guinta will be the 8th US soldier to receive this honor-- the other 7 recipients received the medal posthumously. He is a 25 year old who had served 2 tours in Afghanistan, was wounded the first tour, and received the Bronze Star (a combat medal for heroism). On his second tour, in October 2007, his platoon came under attack while on a patrol wherein his platoon was separated. He exposed himself to heavy enemy fire trying to recover a fellow soldier who had been wounded. After dragging his buddy to cover, he saw two Taliban terrorists dragging away another wounded soldier. SSG Guinta, killed one terrorist, wounded the other, and was able to recover that soldier as well.
I can say, that heroism occurs every day here, as these elite American youth carry out their difficult missions all over this country. I have said this before, but when ever I see these men and women come back from missions, I am so humbled at their attitudes and courage. I travel "outside the wire" (meaning outside of the security of the bases) 2-3 times a week, and I know of the uneasy feelings, and fear that accompanies you until you return to the security of concertina wire and heavily armed guards! I, however, go out in an unmarked Toyota SUV with an Afghan driver, a satellite tracker, my body armor and 45 rounds of 9mm ammo. It seems abit ludicrous, but I am actually safer than the soldiers who travel in convoys in heavily armored vehicles, with lots of fire power. They are targets, and they are the ones that see most of the IEDs, rocket, and small arms attacks. I have followed convoys on a couple of occasions that did receive attacks, and it is an extremely frightening experience. So, I can state, with real knowledge, that these young people are impressively courageous, and deserve our up most respect and honor!
I have been reading with real interest the last several months, many of our on-line news papers, trying to get a feel for how they respond to events over here. I can tell you, that there is certainly an agenda to distract, mislead, and cloud the real war in Afghanistan. I deal with many Afghan leaders, and I see first hand the corruption, and misuse of American Tax payer money. In June, shortly after I arrived, I received reports that trucks carrying supplies and fuel for coalition military forces were being detained at the borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan. They were being held up by Afghan Border Officials because of some "toll" being assessed per truck. Under international treaties signed by our respective governments, supplies imported for support of coalition forces are tax exempt. My co-worker (who processes import documents for all dry cargo) and I (process import documents for fuel) immediately left the "wire" and drove to the Customs Department. We met with the Deputy Minister of Finance, to see what was going on. He declared that the Minister of Finance (who by the way, is one of the most corrupt) had declared this toll on the contractors' trucks, not on the military, as it is their sovereign right to raise revenues for their country. We were able to negotiate a 10 day moratorium to allow us to report this up to our leadership, and react. This was clearly a direct violation of our treaties! The next day, we met with one of the Ambassadors (there are 5 ambassadors here) who told us that was not his issue, it was a military issue! Ultimately, this event reached the Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of State (Hillary Clinton), who were prepared to take this up with Pres. Karzai if it did not get resolved before the 10 day deadline. Well, on the 10th day, the Minister of Finance decided to "table" it for now, but wanted to re-negotiate the treaties as we were hindering their ability to generate revenues. Over that 10 day period, we had over 1,500 containers of food, water and supplies, as well as almost 10 million gallons of fuel held up on the Pakistan side of the border, causing a huge security risk, and food/fuel supplies reaching critical levels! We also incurred millions of dollars of demurrage fees by the Pakistanis.
I don't need to tell you of the hundreds of billions of dollars we have already pumped into this country. Where do you think that money has gone-- to infrastructure, medical improvements, agriculture improvements, education, military and police force development? Yes, some of it has, but most of the hard cash that we have given directly to the Afghan government, left this country on pallets, destined for personal bank accounts in Dubai, UAE. The Minister of Finance has purchased 4 beach front properties in Dubai himself! I don't want to give the impression that all Afghans are corrupt, and that our "investment" in this country has not done any good. I work with another high level government official, who is just the opposite of the Minister of Finance. He works in the Minister of Foreign Affairs (the equivalent of the Dept of State). He and his family stayed here during the Russian occupation, and the Taliban rule. They fought against both, being part of the Mujaheddin. Most of the other current Afghan leadership, including Karzai, fled the country when the Russians arrived, but returned when we provided security, and offered to put them in office. Many of the agencies here, including USAID, Dept of AG, Dept of Homeland Security, but especially the military, have done incredible things, building many roads, schools, hospitals, basic infrastructure, and have attempted to train and equip an Afghan army and police force. I get asked many times if we should be here or not, and although I don't agree with most of the arguments for our presence here, but I will say, that we have been extremely charitable with a people who have never had any country or people care for them the way we have.
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