Battle Company's Battle

There is a forgotten war being fought in Afghanistan that has been ongoing for six and a half years - I remember watching BBC World footage of B-52's dropping bombs while on vacation in Mexico in October, 2001 - but the Iraq Debacle (FYI - it is now 1732 days since "Mission Accomplished") has almost completed pushed it into the background. It is almost never mentioned and for the troops that are fighting and dying over there, that is a outright shame.

Therefore, I thank the heavens that reporter Elizabeth Rubin went to the rugged and scary Korengal Valley to spend time with Battle Company and then wrote about her experiences. For me this war was once again pushed to the forefront of my thoughts.

Her report was shocking - we have fellow citizens there who are literally losing their minds trying to win the "hearts and minds" of people who flat out do not care and do not want us there. Villagers who are friends in the morning are enemies shooting at them at night and lying about it the next day. Militants multiply and watch Battle Company's every move. This list just goes on and on.

The passage below is lifted directly from the article. It is regarding a conversation Rubin had with Capt. Dan Kearney, the leader of Battle Company:

Just before I left, Kearney told me his biggest struggle would be holding his guys in check. “I’ve got too many geeking out, wanting to go off the deep end and kill people,” he said. One of his lieutenants wanted to shoot every Afghan in the face. Kearney shook his head. He wished he could buy 20 goats and let the boys beat and burn them and let loose their rage. He tried to tell them the restraints were a product of their success — that there was an Afghan government with its own rules. “I’m balancing plates on my goddamn nose is what I’m doing,” he said. “All it’s gonna take is for one of these guys to snap.”

I was so moved by the article that I am trying to donate money directly to these guys - not to the USO itself, not to the Afghan war effort, but to Battle Company. These guys have it rougher than almost any American in the world right now - if you don't believe me, read the article. Some of them are stop-lossed - their contract is up but they are not allowed to go home (because we have 160k troops in, you guessed it, Iraq and are super short on resources). It's utter and total bullshit and I'm embarrassed that it is happening, that I am a citizen and that I pay taxes that finance this whole shenanigan.

The NYT also has a good Korengal Valley slide show which shows the terrain and the brave men and women who are halfway around the world, doing the unthinkable each and every day.