I was going to title this entry “Barbarians” but then decided that the term “Barbarians” seems too complimentary.

Afghanistan is a very rough country. Both the environment and the people. Rugged mountains, arid country, open plains chock full of robbers and killers. Tough men who seldom bathe, and have never seen a flush toilet or the inside of a doctor’s office. Men who think it’s effeminate to wear eyeglasses or yield to oncoming traffic. Children forced by their parents to beg and/or sell worthless trinkets in the streets. A place where men & women cannot be seen together if they are not related or they may be killed. I think I wrote earlier about when the Taliban caught a fifteen-year old boy with American currency so they hung him for being a spy. Something I didn’t see reported in the western media is a report about two children of a government official who woke one morning to find a toy truck sitting outside their house. The toy was rigged with explosives and killed the two young boys. I have a video clip of Taliban fighters cutting off the heads of about ten men that I only watched once because it gave me nightmares. They sawed through the necks with a knife like they would slaughter a goat.

All that being said, I still think the Afghans are good people. Most Afghans are just like you & me: they just want to have a happy, comfortable life and to provide for their families. Most of them aren’t avid Muslims. Like most of the Catholics I know, they don’t go to their services regularly or pray every day. However, in the last few days I’ve started to be bothered by a few things. Taken individually, each might be sloughed off. But I’ve been back from vacation less than a week and…well, you decide.

1. On the way from the airport to my safe house, we passed a sheep being slaughtered. Now I’ve seen animals slaughtered before, and it’s a way of life. But this one was different. It was on the side of the road and the two men at work were bleeding the sheep. They had cut its throat, and were holding it down while it kicked and slowly bled to death, its blood draining into the gutter.

2. We’re working with the Afghans to help them humanely resolve an issue, but they’re resisting us on this one. Recently there was an Afghan Army officer who lost his pistol. In reality, he probably sold it on the black market and it’s now in the hands of Al Qaeda or the Taliban, but we’ll never know. The officer was killed in combat shortly after reporting his pistol was missing. Now the Army is trying to collect the price of the pistol from the dead soldier's widow.

3. I attend a weekly logistics meeting, along with several other mentors, at the Ministry of Defense. One of the things we’re trying to teach and institutionalize is the contracting, budgeting, and acquisition process. At this meeting, the topic came up about a rice vendor who wasn’t delivering rice in accordance with the contract. The commanding officer of Logistics Command, General B, heatedly recommended hanging the rice vendor by one leg in a conex box until he delivered. At first I assumed he was joking, but the other senior Army officers at the meeting, including the Assistant Minister of Defense, seemed to consider his proposal. We finally convinced them that General B’s suggestion was not within standard government contracting procedures and guidelines.

I think we’re making great progress modernizing the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, but they still have a long way to go.

Out.