SKATEISTAN - To live and skate in Kabul

Wow...such a powerful short film. "The Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went on to another village." -Luke 9:56

Ron Paul at the South Carolina Republican Debate

"[Bin Laden] wasn't caught in Afghanistan. Nation-building in Afghanistan and telling those people how to live and getting involved in running their country hardly had anything to do with finding the information where he was being held in a country that we give billions of dollars of foreign aid to, at the same time we are bombing that country.
So it's the policy that is at fault. Not having the troops in Afghanistan wouldn't have hurt. We went to Afghanistan to get him, and he hasn't been there. Now that he's killed, boy, it is a wonderful time for this country now to reassess it, get the troops out of Afghanistan and end that war that hasn't helped us and hasn't helped anybody in the Middle East." -Ron Paul

$6 billion a month...

What will it take to get policy-makers' attention to the fact that the war isn't making us safer and isn't worth the cost?

The worst year for U.S. troop deaths ever so far in the war? Check.
The worst year for civilian casualties? Check.
The highest annual cost of the war so far? Check.

We could throw in 9 percent unemployment at home, an economic crisis, and deficit hysteria at home as well. There's simply no justification for continuing to spend almost $6 billion a month on a futile, brutal war while cutting programs that keep people from freezing in the winter. (read the article here)

Confusing numbers....

The war in Afghanistan, with civilian and military casualties at record highs, has become the longest war in the US history.

Military operations have inflicted over USD 100 million in damages on public property in southern Afghanistan.

The majority of voters believed the US should not be involved in Afghanistan.
The support level in the survey has dropped to 41 percent, which is well below the peak of 59 percent a year ago. (link)

Why does this not seem true in day to day life in America? This reinforces my post on MLK Jr Day. If we even have the numbers behind the message...why no MESSAGE????

U.S. keeps funneling money to troubled Afghan projects

"The job we gave USAID was ridiculous: Build the nation," said T.X. Hammes, a retired Marine Corps officer and senior research fellow at the Center for Strategic Research, National Defense University. "The U.S. has made a huge assumption that counterinsurgency and nation building are applicable for Afghanistan. More and more evidence shows that it's not true." (full article)

Afghan girls and education...

Afghan girls attend school on February 16, 2009 in the village of Sandarwa in eastern Afghanistan. Women's education has been severely compromised in Afghanistan as a resurgent Taliban has practiced a policy of intimidation of female students. Women, who make up a significant proportion of Afghanistan's population, have been killed, burned and threatened for attending school

Our selfishness will save soldiers lives...

"We must...stop wasting American blood and treasure on misguided military interventions designed to drag Muslim Arabs and Afghans through the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution in the space of a few years, at gunpoint."
-Short article, kick in the gut analysis.

63% oppose the War in Afghanistan...

Sixty-three percent of people questioned in the poll say they oppose the war, with 35 percent saying they support the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. (link)

Reflecting on Restrepo....

I've thought a lot about the documentary "Restrepo" that I watched on New Years Eve. You can search and read a lot of great reviews out there that explain and expound on why this is a war film that is worth watching, so I won't link to them. But as I reflect on the movie a few things stand out.

One was how I have been conditioned for violence, particularly viewing it. I found myself a bit frustrated that the film wasn't showing the horror and gore of battle. Something that we are often shown in most war movies. On one hand I think this is good, after watching "The Pacific" those that served in that theater of conflict gained my highest respect. The pure hell of it was captured in that series that left me wondering how anyone could see such a depiction of war and ever sign up for the possibility of being in such a conflict. So the horror sometimes awakens us to the pain and suffering of others and could influence us in our choices.

But the other thing was that I think there is a odd glamorizing of it all that conditions us to kinda 'thirst' for it. Maybe the whole 'colosseum' thing...a blood lust that cultivates a hunger to see more and more extreme examples of killing or desperation. It was something that was strange for me...feeling a bit 'bored' by the lack of 'action' or at least the one-sided view of it...bullets being fired...but not seeing whom they are hitting. Even one of the soldiers in the film complained about not being able to 'see the faces' of those he was killing.

The film relied upon the faces and voices of the soldiers stories more than visual carnage and even though I shared the thoughts above, don't think that it doesn't work, because it does. There are moments where you see that war...shapes a soul like nothing else. There are stares and pauses in the interviews that feel like eternity. The emotion captured in brief moments was petrifying.

The scene where the Sargent is killed during 'Rock Avalanche' and the film captures the shock and grief of a few of the soldiers is forever imprinted on my psyche. That moment was brutal, heart-wrentching and one of the most raw moments captured of human pain.

One other part that has left me mulling over the film, was watching the attempts to woo Afghan hill folk with 'getting rich, projects and progress'...by the soldiers attempting to gain security and information. The whole perception of 'Nation Building' and 'Helping' felt exposed in the jockeying for terrorists. Those boys were there to kill bad guys not educate the dirty, toothless herdsmen that were cutting off heads of their fellow soldiers in videos. Seeing the meetings where they were attempting to build a sense of solidarity through bribery and bullying was pathetic. Not that the soldiers were pathetic...but the point of it all seemed so utterly foolish. Making some grunt have to feign compassion or humanitarian aspirations in order to flush out some enemy combatants was a really hard part of the film for me to process. The thinness of it all was exposed through those moments of the film.

But one of things that has stuck with me the most, and was the same with the Pacific, was at the very end when the small print comes across the screen that tell us that: fifty soldiers lost their lives fighting in the Korengal Valley, yet the US military withdrew from it in April 2010.

After all of that courage, suffering and loss...we withdrew.

The futility of it all was so hard to process...and I still don't quite know how someone can deal with that. How does a mother or a wife or a sister process that her loved one was killed trying to 'take' a pieces of a hillside and then the whole thing is abandoned.

After watching the film my respect for our soldiers was yet again raised and yet, my resolve to see such nobel actions wasted on foreign policies that do not warrant such heroic loss was reinforced.

The Sal Giunta Story...

The Sal Giunta Story from SebastianJunger/TimHetherington on Vimeo.

This is one of the soldiers in the Restrepo movie who received a medal of honor for his part in operation Avalanche. This is what true manhood is all about..courage and humility.

RESTREPO is a feature-length documentary that chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. The movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, "Restrepo," named after a platoon medic who was killed in action. It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military. This is an entirely experiential film: the cameras never leave the valley; there are no interviews with generals or diplomats. The only goal is to make viewers feel as if they have just been through a 90-minute deployment. This is war, full stop. The conclusions are up to you.

Restrepo...

I'm waiting for this to be checked back in at Hastings and then I will rent it.

Hunting and Helping...

General Larry Nicholson described his work in Afghanistan as: 10% Hunting and 90% Helping. Can any of you soldiers affirm or add insight or commentary to that assessment?

How Baseball Helped Children and Saved Lives in Afghanistan

I've been looking for ways to highlight the positive work our Troops are doing to support the humanitarian goals related to rebuilding Afghanistan. Spirit Of America is an organization doing just that in cooperation with the US Military. Here is an article describing one project in a village related to starting a 'Baseball game". You can watch a video of the founder talking about the org: here

I have mixed feelings about seeing a solider with a gun and soccer ball...but I also know men who would be the kind of people deeply motivated to heal more than hurt that are in the military, so I see this as a chance to show that to the people of Afghanistan.

The counter-insurgency campaign...success or struggling...?

Democracy Now report on Afghan progress purported by Obama in Portugal. The Afghan report starts at 12:00 in the vid.

I can't help but feel like I am watching old footage from Vietnam when I see these types of reports. It frustrates me to have to keep posting counter points of view at the expense of my military friends. My intent isn't to discourage those serving...my intent is to add voice and info to the debate in hope that people will put pressure on their representatives to end these costly campaigns.

Richard Holbrooke's last words...

As Mr. Holbrooke was sedated for surgery, family members said, his final words were to his Pakistani surgeon: "You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan."

-American Diplomat, Richard Holbrooke, (special adviser on Pakistan and Afghanistan, working under President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton), (Wash Post article)

Youtubing on the edge of death.

Marines in Sangin, Afghanistan doing what Marines do...kill, blow things up and tell stories about it to one another. Wow...this brings up so many conflicting emotions and thoughts...One is pride in our soldiers kicking ass and the other is the odd sense of screwed up reality as I am watching men kill one another put to music. Seeing the gut wrenching tension and at the same time the glee in soldiers faces as if they are playing games. Youtubing on the edge of death. One is a feeling of being sidelined during a period of history when men are doing things that determine life or death...and I am knee deep in human drama and trauma. They are shooting bullets and I am shooting my mouth off. The dichotomies of it all frustrate me. The mundane nature of so much of life around here is the very thing that many soldiers are longing for and which is driving many here to self-inficted acts of stupidity and sin. I'm trying to convince people to live while others are just wishing they could live.

Puking while we are Partying....

It's hard to watch this video and remember that our fellow Americans and brothers in arms are facing these situations while we sip coffee, argue with parents, complain about our lives, pursue selfish lives and go off and waste a ton of money we don't have on a holiday that will be over in snort of indifference. The video is in German but you can understand the sounds of gun fire, the smoke and chaos, the shouting and the man vomiting our his over-amped nerves. These are the images that motivate me to pray for my friends at are in Afghanistan and other areas of conflict or potential conflict. I know its not a video of blood and gore...but it reflects the tension that burns its affects into tee psyche of soldiers.

American Prisoner in Afghanistan pleads for release...

Please watch the video to the end to hear the solider's request.

Three cups of tea...please

What an amazing man and mission....one of the best and most hopeful things I have heard about Afghanistan. May his tribe increase. My favorite moment: The Taliban playing on the school playground swing set....violence is truly the fruit of a failed imagination.

http://castroller.com/podcasts/BillMoyersJournal/1415219