There has to be a direction for Afghanistan

A classic Bagram-ism....which way to go?

Piles and piles of Afghan dirt; one way to keep the insurgents away

Work.  Between cultures many differences exist, but the differences in dirt-moving seem like something that could transcend cultures….apparently not.  This Afghan worker walked at least 500 yards moving dirt between two separate locations for no apparent reason.  I wanted to ask him why he’d walked through a field of similar dirt to this small plot of land.  Maybe the dirt here is more fertile than all the dirt he passed?  We’ll never know.

The Bagram market

A day at the market is anything but routine in Afghanistan.  Hundreds of people watched as we walked among the locals.  More curious than anything.

An on-looker surveys the camera waiting on a day's work at the market.

An Afghan National Army soldier stands guard with his AK-47.

Raw meat hangs in the open air at the local market.

A dog begs for something to eat, or possibly rescue. He and an identical twin wander around the local market.

The sun rises over Bagram Air Field and a C-17 Globemaster III

 

The sun rises over the Bagram Air Field flightline as a C-17 Globemaster III starts engines for his daily cargo run. Taken from atop the "Crowe's Nest," a Soviet constructed air traffic control tower built in 1976 -- yes before the Soviet occupation in 1979.

Inauguration and violence looms in Afghanistan

Following a deadly rocket attack in the Tagab marketplace, a journalist and I witnessed Blackhawk after Blackhawk unloading innocent Afghan civilians, now patients for awaiting Airmen; Airmen eager to whisk the children and elderly men away to surgeons in the nearby operating rooms of our hospital.  Elderly men and children — a signature trademark of the targets this war’s enemy seems to prey upon.  Civilians not capable of fighting back against 2nd world rockets and the mainstream Kalashnikovs that riddle the war-torn nation.  

Fortunately for the Afghans, Airmen and Soldiers in the Bagram hospital had recently conducted a mass-casualty exercise similar to the events surrounding this attack.  Many in the services hate playing in these exercises, but this was an exercise that surely saved many of these Afghans as their liquid life drained onto the concrete tarmac in front of us.

I wonder what’s in store over the next few days as the Afghan Presidential inauguration looms; an inauguration that now appears up in arms with controversy of corruption and even a media-ban.  So much for free access for the press.  Will the enemy make a brief appearance as they did in the recent election, or will the decide to go for more.

New patch, same old mission — the mice

“Free” Media alive and well in Afghanistan, just not much of it around

One of the positives from this war will be the start-ups of “free” media.  I say “free” because it’s often a side job, not a profession here with Afghans and the fact that “free” speech still comes with a terrible price often which might be paid in blood.  A price a local news-teller wants to avoid.  

Meet Naweed Yousifi.  He’s the Afghan CEO of two media start-ups — I know what you’re thinking, media start-ups?  It seems somewhat odd through modern American-lenses considering the media situation could be considered anything but stable as American media goes through its renaissance to become a hybrid of traditional news and user-generated news.  

The task for Yousifif is a mountainous hurdle considering less than a third of the Afghan population can read and their National Army maintains a 90% illiteracy rate; an Army designed and built to protect Yousifi and his Constitutional right to freedom of speech as outlined in Article 34 of their national document which was approved in 2004. 

Now, the Western media has descended onto this war as Iraq is cooling off and the media has created the perceived turmoil between the President, the Commander of International Forces here and the Strategy that seems to be unknown to anyone except the hundred thousand servicemembers here – the mission goes on, regardless of what you hear and read.  The media pros, like those from AFP, UPI, NBC and BBC are here, but startups like Voice of Afghanistan is one worth watching, as long as the enemy stays away from them.  The divide exists in Afghanistan; there are major media houses but almost no local weeklies, regionals or trade publications that so many Americans find at home. 

The problem.
Now for Yousifi, imagine a world where the U.S. military Public Affairs machine is at your doorstep offering great stories, embeds, photo ops, etc. and other opportunities to the world’s best warriors in action – no holds barred.  The journalist in me screams that this is a fantastic opportunity and many others in the mainstream Western media agree that the access being given to media now doesn’t even compare to past wars where often many routine media visits were anything but spontaneous. 

But, the problem is “Free” to Yousifi.  Free means covering operations in Afghanistan, but constantly looking over his shoulder to ensure the enemy isn’t there.  Think of it from the Afghan perspective, not an America culture which has known free media for hundreds of years.  Yousifi goes along on patrol with an American team and is probably blacklisted in the community because of what could be seen as an improper relationship with the troops.  Or worse, these Afghans are targeted by the enemy for two simple reasons: The enemy condemns the media and secondly because the enemy doesn’t respect anything that sheds light on their evil deeds– such as the bombings of innocents. 

As we move into more of a culture of free-media-adoption with open access in Afghanistan, perpetuated by Coalition Commanders who understand the value of information in this war and allow media more access to Airmen and Soldiers, great things will happen.  And these great things will undoubtedly happen in the free market of radio waves for the masses, as well as the students who may read the Voice Of Afghanistan in the outer regions where currently the only news villagers hear is from their elders or clergy. 

I had the opportunity to work with Yousifi briefly before and he received some tutoring from military and civilian media pros and seems committed to sharing information that will ultimately turn these people around.  It’s not the mega-machine of Department of State and Department of Defense Public Affairs types pushing messaging to Fox News and CNN that’ll turn around the Afghan farmers of the Parwan Province, it’s people like Yousifi who’ll educate them one story at a time.  This is Media COIN at the grassroots built off the understanding that word of mouth influences from the top down and from the bottom up in a culture that cannot communicate any other way. 

Local Afghan media still has a lot to be desired when it comes to English and common press release standards, but then again, I got the message and am 100% sure what he’s trying to tell me.  All that I could gather is that since his close proximity to Kabul, he must be talking about this story reported on by the Los Angeles Times. 

“To day at 8:15 am a bomb blast at near of comp phoinx [Camp Phoenix] as people say 2 civilance killed up to now the us army didn’t say any word about this blast,” he blasted out to a few dozen journalists on the ground in Afghanistan. 

More to come from Afghan media start-ups.

Sabi the missing dog sticks it to the Taliban; reunites with handlers

As if the war wasn’t strange enough, it appears an explosive-sniffing dog lost some 14 months ago in Afghanistan has now been reunited with his team.  Sabi, a black lab was lost during a firefight where 10 SAS troops were wounded in a heavy firefight.  Great story from ISAF and good on the Commander for the photo-op below.  Smart dog.

General McChrystal, the Commander of Coalition forces in Afghanistan gives Sabi a welcome home.

 

Happy Veterans Day from Afghanistan

Being deployed on Veterans Day, and every other major holiday for that fact, has put a new light on this day that is usually spent hang out and relaxing.  Thank a vet was the message we got from everyone and thank you for thinking of us who are deployed.

Happy Veteran’s Day and thank you to everyone who sent us emails, Facebook notes, Skyped and commented on our blogs — they were very much appreciated.  We’ve gotten calls from all over the world, and except for trying to reach a few folks who took the day off back in the States, had a great day. 

The meals are always usually better on the holidays and today was no different.  The cake in the Chow Hall was moist — a big deal for Afghanistan for some reason — and the macaroni and cheese was extra cheesy, nice touch macaroni and cheese man, nice touch adding the layers of additional cheese. 

But, the big things were the same, common courtesy to each other.  There were many who thanked each other, wished a “Happy Veteran’s Day” in the gym, or in line for the Chow Hall.   There was the phone call to dad that we’ve been trying to do every year for about the past decade.

Photos: first Afghan snow creeps its way down the mountains

As if the days weren’t crazy enough, now it’s turning into a “Winter Wonderland” minus all the crazy rides — mostly.  These are some photos from Yankdizzle of the first real snow here a few days back.  The high was about 30 and the low was about 19 fahrenheit. 

Snow creeps down the Afghan mountains in early November as the hustle and bustle of Bagram Airfield continues.

 

 

The morning fog settles down on 'Expeditionary Housing' otherwise known as the B-huts that have been here for years.