Today a new book by my good friend and New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor hits the book stores and man is it a good read. I got one of drafts a month ago and it is a fantastic story well told by one of the best thriller writers in the business.
Brad Thor on the Baba deck of FOB Taj
I got to meet Brad when he came to Afghanistan in the winter of 08 with some of my “special” friends to research the book. He is a great guy to chat up and his meticulous research paid off as he crafted his spell binding tale. Experienced Afghan hands will recognize the authenticity in the details he uses to paint the backdrop of this excellent work.
This is the book all the cool kids will be reading this summer. Don't be a dork and wait for the paperback version - it is worth every penny to get the hardback version now.
But I have to put in a quick word in defense of Baba G. Baba G is, of course, a fictional character but were he not I can guarantee you that if he drank 11 beers in one night there is no way he would let a guy he admires and respects as much as he does Brad find all empties. Baba G would spread them around like frigging easter eggs so no one guy could get the evidence and put 2 and2 together. Baba G is way too sneaky to be caught operating outside the parameters of normal social mores - of that I am certain.
I am on my last day of leave and heading back to Jalalabad tomorrow. The time off has done me much good. I am writing on the blog and not even angry about anything - usually when I write I am pounding the key board and talking to myself. Actually I am talking to Scout who started hanging out in the room again when the heat started and we switched on the A/C, but she hides under the bed and ignores me so I may as well be muttering to myself .
I received a ton of email after the Gardez post - almost every bit of it positive and several of the Army guys I corresponded with mentioned how angry they were after returning home. For those of you who took the time to write me and share those thoughts I appreciate it - more than you will ever know. I took up the pen last fall out of frustration at what I have seen happen in Afghanistan. Writing about it seems only to increases that frustration and by the time I headed home a couple of weeks ago I was an angry man. But I am tanned, rested and fit…ready to re-enter the fray again which is what I feel I was born to do.
More than a few of my readers thought I was getting a little carried away with the Marine thing in the Gardez post. This hard charger appears to be moving his head at around 2100 feet per second to literally dodge a bullet. I rest my case. Just kidding of course - this is one lucky cat who is no different than his fellow Americans who sign up to be grunts in the US Army. It is the institutions which are different - the individuals who join these institutions deserve nothing less than total respect and appreciation from us civilians and they get just that from me. This photo is from an official Marine Corps website but I forgot to note which one.
From here on out I am going to try to tone it down a bit on the blog and leave the political commentary to Mark Levin who is a true American Hero in my eyes for writing Liberty and Tyranny and for the work he does on his radio show. Last thing I would want him or his people to think is that I’m a back bencher trying to run with his unique perspective and talent. But when I am muttering to Scout in my mind I hear Marks voice not mine and often his words too - the man is a complete stud.
My friend Christian Major was laid to rest in Danbury Connecticut on the 24th of June. There is an on line memorial with a guest book which can be found here. His mother has been kind enough to exchange emails with me and I’d like to pass on her heartfelt thanks to all of you who commented on the post with your recollections of this fine man and great American.
Christian with one of the boys he took care of in Kabul. That is Sabu who was the youngest of three brothers sponsored by Christian. Rest in Peace my brother - you are missed
Last February I wrote this post about the Afghan Security Market. I was in Kabul for a month as a favor to a friend when I wrote the post filling in for a guy I had not met before named Christian Major. Christian and I spent two days conducting a turn over before he went [...]
Gardez is the capitol of Paktya Province which is located in the southeast of Afghanistan. It is one of the provinces which border Pakistan, the terrain and vegetation is almost identical to the high deserts of the American west. Paktya looks similar to Marine Corps training base in 29 Palms California and exactly [...]
I took up the pen last fall out of frustration at seeing our efforts in Afghanistan result in continuous negative trend line. Although I have tried to point out some positives like night platoon ambushes or the admirable performance of other developmental programs run by countries such as Germany and Japan the overall trend of [...]
I have been victimized this week by a crashed internet system and one false start on this post. In addition when I do get a little net time I am engaged in several email conversations with FRI readers – some of these are so good I may post them as standalone articles. Chris Chivers of [...]
My last post has generated considerable interest from all over the blogsphere, providing me a great opportunity to restate a few of my firmly help beliefs about Afghanistan. One of the first and most contentious of my views is that al Qaeda and their Taliban allies will never again run Afghanistan no matter what happens [...]
It is time to turn the ole gimlet eye onto the news, cut through the clutter, provide a little ground truth, and introduce another obscure military concept to the FRI family and their informed friends. The start point is this article concerning the killing of a little girl by the Italian army ISAF contingent in [...]
There were a series of news stories which aroused more than a little interest amongst the circle of professional infantrymen I correspond with. One of those stories concerned young lieutenant leading a nighttime ambush patrol with his platoon from the 1st battalion of the 26th infantry. And what a story it is – [...]
Every now and then one stumbles across a story which illustrates deeply held convictions so well that you just have to share. Here is one of those and it is a sad tale of incompetence, risk aversion and just plain clown like silliness. It is amusing (I guess) but it is also so typical of [...]
There has been a flood of RFP”s (request for proposal’s) hitting the street of Kabul concerning FOB Sharana. Sharana (spelled Sharan on UN AIMS maps) is the capitol of Paktika Province and a relatively small city of some 2,200 people.
Here is an assessment done in the not too distant past on Sharana: The dominate [...]
Editors Note: One of the topics frequently mentioned by ISAF, NATO, and US AID is the need to get Internet and computers into educational facilities, schools, and ultimately homes in Afghanistan. There is a NATO Virtual Silk Road program which is the closest to actually installing hardware and internet - they have been planning for [...]
The title above will be the basis for a series of articles I will write over the coming weeks outlining some cutting edge technologies that are just being placed in the field, or will soon debut in the next few years. The events surrounding the 11th of September 2001 and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan [...]
Tim invited me to submit some ideas for ways to spend the Work For Cash program he’s administering this spring. There is a focus on getting the money into the hands of women. Many of the traditional WFC programs are things like digging out the sewers or sweeping the streets, and those are [...]
My last post raised a few excellent questions in the comments section which I’d like to address over the next few days. Before doing so I’d like to thank my good friend James Saddler for joining the Free Range team and putting up an excellent story. James and I go way back [...]
Dear readers - what do you think of the new FRI look? Easier to read? Hate the colors? Can’t figure out where anything is? Finally works in MS Explorer? Let us know. This new theme has a million options, hopefully cool features to come soon.
This blog post is a bit of a departure from FRI’s normal topics – no embed reporting, no strategies on how to win the Global War on Terror (GWOT), no great empowerment projects (aka the Fablab) to talk of, but I hope you’ll find it interesting none the less.
When a large bureaucracy like the Pentagon is faced with making a major decision regarding an issue as complex as Afghanistan experienced observers know they will see one of two approaches. The first (and by far rarest) option is a radical departure from current operational methods representing a new way forward. The way [...]
I had a great interview with Jake Allen from the Combat Operator Ezine. He is just as talented on the radio as he is with the pen and it turns out we had met each other several years ago when his former rifle company commander Dave Furness and I dropped by his home in [...]
Editors Note: The text is a Chim Chim post recording his observations on the recent ISAF PRT conference in Kabul. It is an interesting take from an academic who, although young, fit and very smart, has no prior experience with the military or conflict zones. I have added in some random pictures because my brother really [...]
Over the last couple of weeks I have been conducting a Regional Security Assessment throughout the Northern Region. I approached this task with minimal planning as far as geographical objectives were concerned. Since it was conducted by myself and my driver only, I didn’t feel the need to generate a formal and extensive plan. A vehicle, [...]
Tim san really really wanted me to post our project descriptions for you readers even though I haven’t had enough time to them justice. (I’ve just returned from a very intense install / training / opening week in East Cleveland, Ohio where there was a more tense security presence than much of Afghanistan.)
One ton [...]
I am wrapping up my time in Kabul and getting ready to press embed with the Marines down south in early March. I am currently working on something I cannot blog about and it is boring. Inshallah I’ll have a story to tell soon – in the meantime I have been catching up [...]
Private security contractors have been in news lately mostly due to the ongoing Blackwater saga from Iraq. Afghanistan has had its share of security contractor issues too but the market has never been as big or as wild as the Iraq PSC market. I cannot comment on Blackwater’s operations in Iraq but [...]
Tim’s been bugging me to write a summary post for all you readers wondering what became of us. (Most of us are all the way home now and struggling to catch up on sleep while making an appearance at our “day jobs”.) In short, we accomplished an awful lot and collectively recorded about 250GBs of [...]
In Marine Corps officer schools “The Yellow” is the school solution for tactical problems normally handed out in the form of an operation order or an annex to an operation order on yellow paper. Having written at great length about the problems we see with both the military and reconstruction efforts I’d now like [...]
The Fab Folk continue to work like demons to maximize their time on the ground. Yesterday they had successful test shots with their fabricated internet antennas to both a local NGO and the Nangarhar Public Hospital. They work every evening setting up the XO laptops they have sent in and early each morning [...]
The Fab Lab team has arrived and is now hard at work. The logistics involved supporting their aggressive schedule is keeping me on the road for good bit of the New Year which helps explain the lack of activity on this blog. However things are calming down as Team Fab Lab hit its [...]
There were two interesting articles in the news concerning Afghanistan today which illustrate (to me) the dire straits we now face. One article reported on the clever use of Viagra by CIA case officers; the other was a mildly negative critique of the US AID reconstruction efforts made by a senior US AID officer. [...]
This will be a long post because the topic is important requiring that I be 100% clear concerning my observations, recommendations and opinions. In previous posts I have made my case regarding the speed and efficiency with which we are conducting stability operations in Afghanistan. I believe our reconstruction efforts are flawed; we [...]
Editors Note: This post is written by Amy Sun who is the MIT team leader for the Jalalabad FabLab (and many other of the FabLabs around the world too.) It was on her blog which targets the small group of people who are interested in this sort of thing and designed to produce funding [...]
Recently the Pentagon released a Department of Defense Directive on Irregular Warfare. This has been greeted with a few articles in the press and much discussion amongst the various players on the ground in Afghanistan. When you see documents that say “The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff shall…” that is [...]
For the past five years I have listened intently to the senior generals, politicians, and U. S. State Department officials as they tell the world that the most important thing to be done in Afghanistan is reconstruction and the rehabilitation of infrastructure. In countries where a majority of the population is illiterate actions speak [...]
Today started out great – I am back in Jalalabad after completing a short job which I cannot freely blog about and the weather is perfect. I fired up the computer and checked in with Power Line to find this excellent story about a Marine rifle platoon who were ambushed by 250 Taliban. [...]
We had to make a run to Kabul last Friday to take some clients to the airport and to pick up new ones. The Jalalabad to Kabul road is considered very dangerous by the military and US State Department, of medium risk by the UN, and very little risk by me and the hundreds [...]
We had the rare treat of accompanying some guys working for the U.S. Army to the Torkham border today. They went up to chat with the platoon of American MP’s who jointly man the border crossing with the Afghan Border Police (ABP). The MP’s have a very cool gig at the Torkham. They [...]
One of the coolest things about living in Afghanistan is the sense of history which surrounds one as you trek off the beaten path. In the rural districts the daily routine of the people has altered little in hundreds of years. It is easy to find the sites of historic battles or ancient [...]
Afghanistan is slipping rapidly towards a state of anarchy. The security situation has degraded to the point where the lavish force protection measures adopted by the Department of State Regional Security Officers and the U.S. Military seven years ago now seem prudent. Media reports attribute the decline to a resurgent Taliban movement [...]
It was a regular Saturday night in Mazar-e-Sharif quiet, cold, yet comfortable as I say having dinner with a friend at one of the only restaurants catering to internationals – the mighty Oak. We were passing the time with small talk. It was towards the end of our evening that my mate received a phone [...]
Twenty five years ago today I was driving to work when I heard the news about a suicide truck bomber attacking the US Marine peacekeeping force deployed in Beirut, Lebanon. I had never heard of a “suicide bomber” and did not know the Marines, deployed to Lebanon as a buffer between waring factions, were [...]
Editors Note: This is the first post by our good friend “Chim Chim” who works inside the wire with the American Army. His time in Afghanistan is coming to an end but he has given us many good posts to publish in the weeks ahead. He is posting anonymously at his own request.
The woman’s section [...]
There are two main routes heading through the mountains to the east out of Kabul. The Latabad Pass, which is a poorly maintained dirt track road, and the Mahipar Pass which is a newly paved road and in excellent condition. Both passes funnel traffic into the village of Surobi and from there all traffic heading [...]
This week has been very busy. It started with another covert radio show interview. Brett Winterable had Bill Roggio from the Long War Journal and I on for the opening segment. Bill is an old friend who visited with us back in 2006. He and I took a run to Qalat where he got some [...]
The security situation in the western provinces of Afghanistan has deteriorated significantly over the last year. The first five years after the allied invasion in 2001 in the west were a time of peace and hope. The city of Herat is out west, and Herat has 24/7 electricity from nearby Iran, functioning modern infrastructure, and [...]
This is my first post on freerangeinternational, I think those who’ve read Tim’s posts would have come across my name a once or twice. At the moment I am up in Mazar-e-Sharif which is located in the north central part of the country… I am the ‘BOT’!
Two days ago, I traveled to Hairatan which is [...]
Yesterday’s post started with a plug for the latest Covert Radio show and ended with me blogging about the CURE hospital. It occurred to me that writing more about CURE hospital and the other international medical training efforts would be of interest to those who read this blog. The international hospitals here do not allow [...]
Brett Winterable was kind enough to have me on his show earlier in the week - you can listen to it here
Brett will be moving from the net to a broadcast station soon and asked that I join him on his inaugural show. That is high praise for an old Marine - Brett is [...]
The southern region of Afghanistan is unstable, dangerous, and an extremely risky place to travel by road these days. This is a new development which started about one year ago. Prior to that we would make trips down to Kandahar routinely, tracing the same route made famous in James Michener’s excellent book Caravans. Back in [...]
Mazar-i-Shariff is home to the Kala Jangi Fighter Fortress which was the scene of a famous battle in November 2001. Unfortunately I only have one picture of the fort’s exterior which does not do it justice. My good friend “The Cautious Citizen” and I were in the area on a site visit. He [...]
The northern regions of Afghanistan are the safest areas in the country. A majority of the population in these provinces are Tajik or Hazara and they do not now and never have supported the Taliban or any other religious based armed opposition group. We routinely travel in the north without body armor or rifles and [...]
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