Dear Family and Friends,
Afghanistan's voter registration window ended last month. It is a very exciting time to see democracy blossom and a nation come to life. The success of voter registration was remarkable with over 10 million people registered. The performance easily meets the United Nations' minimum requirement in order to meet legitimacy. In the province in which I work, they needed 380,000 registered to meet the minimum requirement. The final number put them over the goal with over 450,000. Even with so many people registered, many were complaining that they couldn't get their voter registration cards. The UN ran out of card laminate and pre-printed card stock.
The local Afghan leadership supported the process unseen like any emerging democracy before it. It is rule by gun in Afghanistan, but many took it too far. Afghan Militia Force checkpoints started asking people who wanted to pass to show their voter registration cards. If they couldn't produce it, they had to pay. This is Afghan democracy with a spin. These incidences are not widespread in the country, but it happened enough to get reported fairly often. Women were also registering to vote, but nowhere near the numbers of men. At best, the females registered were somewhere around 15%. Still a long way to go, but it is a start.
One of our soldiers started talking to some school age children while we were on a mission the other day. The kids had their school bags with textbooks with them as they walked home from school. He asked to see one of the textbooks and was shocked at what he saw.
The book had several pages in it with pictures describing math. Remember the picture textbooks that show 2 apples plus 2 apples equals 4 apples? The book had the same thing, but only it had 2 machine guns plus 2 machine guns equals 4 machine guns! The picture math continued throughout the book with hand grenades, knives, and bullets.
This curriculum was generated during the time of the Taliban. New curriculum and new textbooks have not been completed and printed yet, so they are using the old textbooks. There are still a few hardliners in the transitional government, so this is not happening as quickly as it could.
With curriculum such as this in existence.some US citizens don't get it as to why we are here. The Taliban were teaching their kids to be terrorists at the most basic level.
We've completed a trip last week that marks a milestone in my travels here. We conducted a mission located where known Taliban live and where we get extensive "troops in contact." Since we were traveling in a high threat area, we rode almost purely in up armored hummvees. There is a certain sense of security you feel when riding in these trucks. We received a timely shipment of brand new up armored hummvees the week before. These trucks are awesome. At over 12,000 pounds of armor, they can protect you from bullets, grenades and most road side bombs. A turret in the top has a gun mount for offensive capability. To top it off, the 6 cylinder turbo charged diesel can really move the heavy vehicle. This is pretty surprising considering the vehicle is 6 tons plus when loaded with men, equipment and supplies. I was definitely safer riding in these trucks than my Toyota Landcruiser.
The trip had many highlights. Of course, we ate more goat and rice with plenty of chai (tea). My mission was to talk to police commanders, district chiefs and tribal leaders about the upcoming elections and the status on the reconstruction effort. The secondary mission was to look at some schools and roads that needed to be rebuilt.
One highlight of the trip was a visit to a hydroelectric dam up in the mountains. The mountains are a portion of the Southern end of the Hindu Kush, which eventually ties into Mount Everest. The scenery was incredible. The dam was built by the US before the Soviet occupation and generates power (intermittently) to the Southern part of the country to include the city of Khandahar. The teal blue color of the water looked so refreshing compared to the miles of parched soil that stretches across the horizon. We did not take a dip, it was not exactly a recreation area with all of the unfriendlies around.
We drove out of the mountains and slept in the middle of the desert that night. It was actually peaceful. A slight, warm breeze could be heard more than felt. Other than that, almost nothing could be heard. It was as if the desert was dead. While on guard watch, it was comforting to hear a US jet patrol the skies as well as the occasional pass of an unmanned, armed drone aircraft operated by a US soldier via remote control hundreds of miles away. It was also an indicator that we were in the dragon's lair of Afghanistan. This is where what's left of the leadership of the Taliban have their homes. You could just feel that it just wasn't quite right there. We fully expected to get rocketed that night, but nothing happened. Another quiet night in a combat zone is always welcome.
We made our way to a town in this region to where I've been to before. I needed to check on some wells that I had contracted for a month earlier. After rolling into town, the district chief greeted me with an invite to more chai. We sat outside on straw mats, sipped tea, and talked about current events in his district. The mud walled compound was saturated with armed men. US soldiers covered the perimeter with a few on the inside to provide for my personal security.
Inside the compound, over 50 men armed with AK-47 machine guns milled around. Half of the men that came with us as were from the Afghan National Police and the National Directorate of Security (Afghan version of the soviet KGB!). The others were the district chief's men. He was pro-coalition, so I felt fairly comfortable with so many men with guns around. Taken out of context, the sight would make most people shudder with frigid fear. It was like a scene from an Indiana Jones movie. Dirty, rough looking Afghans armed to the teeth!
Somehow, a man not with any of us slipped into the crowd. He approached the mat and sat down inches from my face. He was dressed in different clothing and started speaking Urdu, which is spoken mostly in Pakistan and India. He was not an invited guest. The district chief thought he was with me and I thought he was with him.
After a few moments of getting this straightened out, local policemen attempted to remove him. A lot of pushing and shoving, but the police were not being successful. The man started kicking and punching and the situation escalated. The scene made the Rodney King beating look like a tickle fight. We had the beating stopped and the now unconscious man was hauled off to an Afghan jail. It was a tense few minutes, but ended fairly quickly. What surprises me most is why a man would be inclined to attempt to get into a meeting that he was not invited to and not leave when asked, with so many armed men around! Thankfully, the mission ended successfully with no one save the uninvited guest getting hurt.
I've attached a few pictures.
