Dear Readers, please read and reflect on this letter from a soldier in Afghanistan,and reflect on being a Canadian, My few personal comments follow the letter.
Hello all, 17 days to go. My replacement arrived last night. A good thing too. I'm tired. Everyone's tired. It's time to get out of here and get a new crew in. It's been a long time. I was made aware of just how long it's been recently when I was watching some clips of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the gym. I realized that last year I was watching the Stanley Cup final in a barracks in Gagetown. We've been at this for 16 months now! Nine months of pre-deployment training - Aldershot, Gagetown, Kingston, Halifax, Kingston again, Gagetown again, Ottawa, Wainwright, Gagetown yet again and Ottawa again! Then here in Afghanstan since January. 16 months of living in barracks or tents, eating in mess halls, etc... It's not that I'm tired of Afghanistan. Most of my time recently has been spent on KAF, and this doesn't even qualify as Afghanistan in my book. We're on an airbase in the desert with 40 degree heat, a Burger King and Pizza Hut and the stars and stripes flying everywhere. If we substituted the Pakistani labourers with Mexicans this could be somewhere in the US Southwest! It's as if I've been confined to base at Fort Huachuca, Arizona for the past six months! What I'm tired of is communal living. I'm tired of waiting in a lineup three times a day for a meal like a pig at a trough. I'm tired of showering with a couple thousand of my closest friends. And I'm tired of sharing a bathroom with the aforementioned Pakistani labourers. Doing this for a couple of days might be an interesting cultural experience. After 200 days it wears really thin! I've never seen any of these guys wash their hands after coming out of the stalls. You'd think they'd at least splash a little water on their hands for my sake prior to going to work at the Pizza Hut! While in the stalls, they don't sit on the toilet seat like we do, but will either stand or squat on top of it, which results in broken toilet seats and an overall messy situation. When they brush their teeth they shove their toothbrushes down their throats until they choke and gag, almost to the point of vomiting. The other day I had just finished showering when a Pakistani came in and entered the stall next to mine completely clothed. I figured he must have been a plummer going to make some repairs. Then the curtain closed and the water started running and he proceeded to take a shower. I just shook my head and told myself it was time to get out of here. You'd think that with over 2,000 Canadians here we could have our own washroom facilities, but I guess that's too much to ask. Coming to Afghanistan is much like going back in time. There are many similarities to the Middle Eastern culture in biblical times, which has given me a better understanding of the Bible. The bread that they make here is flat and much like Christ and his disciples ate at the last supper. The locals are always washing their feet (usually in the washroom sinks!) just as described in the Bible. And the books of Genesis and Judges both contain stories of a traveller who arrives in a village and is put up for the night in someone's house. In both stories, men in the village arrive and tell the host to hand over the guest so they can have sex with him. The host pleads for them not to do such a wicked thing and offers his virgin daughter to them instead. I never really understood this story: 1) Why would the host so willingly offer up his daughter and 2) Why would the men insist on having sex with the man instead? At least I never understood the story until now. In the Middle East women are seen as worthless. A sheep or goat has more value then a female family member. And homosexuality is rampant in these parts of the world. There is a saying here - sex with women is for babies, sex with men is for pleasure. You often see men walking around hand in hand, touching each other, giggling and playing. Even more disturbing is the last part of the saying - and sex with boys is for ecstacy. Young boys, referred to as tea boys are often seen in the company of older men, including the mullahs. The government actually passed a law prohibiting men from having sex with boys who had not yet begun to shave. There was a case recently where an Afghan policeman shot and wounded a man who tried to stop him from raping his 12 year-old son. Maybe that's what happens when you cover all your women from head-to-toe in burkas and keep them locked away in compounds. I don't know. As a result of what we are doing here, I am more proud to be a Canadian now than ever before. The Canadian Area of Operation is Kandahar Province, the Pashtu-dominated birthplace of the Taliban, and the place the Taliban most desperately want to take back. Along with neighbouring Helmand Province to the west, it's by far the most dangerous part of the country. The Canadian Army doesn't take a back seat to anyone in these parts. We are certainly doing our fair share in Afghanistan. The pictures were both taken at FOB Masuum Gar. As I mentioned in a previous e-mail, Masuum Gar used to belong to the Taliban. We took it last fall during Op Medusa and now it belongs to us. As you can see, it's covered with Canadian tanks and the troops painted the rocks on the side of the mountain to create the flag.
As a military cook I also experienced the poor sanitary habits of locally hired staff in kitchens throughout the middle east. The military kitchens (Canadian) tried to solve this problem by watching them closely and telling them to wash. Also for those who have not served or visited the middle east the fact that a man would take a shower fully clothed is not fiction. Most Muslim men are uneasy with their bodies and an infidel seeing them. Last but not least it is true that Arabs do have respect for their animals and not for women. As for men walking hand in hand yes they do and yes boys are marketable commodities. This is a fact of Arab Culture, illegal in most of the world.
For those of you with access to a library you will enjoy the following book written by Carmen Bin Laden ....yes of THE BIN LADEN FAMILY it is a factual book about life for a woman in the middle east. its title is.........
My Life in the Kingdom I cannot rate this book any higher than Superb, excellent reading..
I will sign off now and return in a week or so as I will be travelling for a few days. Please support our troops by wearing RED ON FRIDAY
Reflect on being Canadian
Nil Sine Labore
Robby
