The Dark Side  September 23, 2006

With less then two weeks remaining in my tour of destitution, I have noticed that I am much more attune to circumstances regarding my safety in Afghanistan. That said, my opinions are of the Taliban and their Nazi-like tactics in the Hellmand District are becoming more galvanized. Like the conflicts in the Congo, this is not a battle between black & white, not a battle between Islam & Christianity, but a turf war between Pushtu and everyone else in the country. The Pushtu are the predominant tribe in the south, adopted a Wahhabi's view of Islam which set the table for the Taliban. They are funded & supported by fellow tribesmen in Pakistan, although that government is aligned with the United States and the West, and has been since their support against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Two issues of international attention have recently affected me personally. Many of you are aware of the four Canadian troops killed near Kandahar by a suicide bomber. Like many of the British, American, Italian & Macedonian troops I see here in Kabul, they were working to improve relations with the local Afghan people, in this case, handing out candy and school supplies to kids. With the help of the many care packages I have received from home, I've done this on several occasions myself and consider giving old running shoes and chocolates to my neighbor kids and families one of the highlights of life here. Fortunately, I live in a relatively peaceful area and need wear my uniform only when I am engaged in flight operations. I've recently learned that the Canadians were not killed by by a Talib' bomber, but by a 13-year-old boy who had been duped into thinking that by killing Canadians, throwing away his life, and injuring scores of others, mostly, children, that he would live in paradise. The Nazi's would have relished teaching that trick. On the day of the attack, I was returning to my plane from the Kandahar Air Base coffee shop and upon passing the MASH, was asked by Canadian corpsmen to step aside for arriving ambulances. After starting engines, the Control Tower had me hold position for a landing Chinook helicopter. As the dust settled, I could see the causalities being offloaded. Unfortunately, there was not the urgency afforded the living.

On my last flight before going to Cape Town, I had a routine stop in the roadside work camp of Shorab where the trans-Afghan highway is being constructed, mostly by Turkish engineers. As I was on descent, arriving from Kandahar, I received an urgent call asking if I could assist in a possible medevac. My arrival path was effectively over the highway and about the time I was passing 10,000ft, beneath me, the Taliban were ambushing the Turks. Little else was known until after I landed and as my first officer was configuring the plane for ambulance service, the radio call came that one Turk had been killed, two others were drug away into the desert by the Taliban. My first instinct was to hop into the plane and locate the kidnappers as they could not hide in the desert. My plane is equipped with GPS and we could send coordinates to the well armed posse (yes, they are called that here) and the Turks may be rescued. Unfortunately, I was under orders not to engage in any such operation as it could jeopardize our neutral presence here. It was very frustrating for all. The next day, we flew out the lone body and upon return from Cape Town, I learned that the Taliban had been in contact, saying only that the victim was alive.

A couple of days ago, I read that the Turk had been killed by the Taliban and that his body had been dumped along the highway. The following day, I received a call to retrieve his body. I dispatched a crew for yet another Hearse flight. Upon return, they reported that the man's head had been severed. In "Raiders of the Lost Ark", Indiana Jones sees the bad guys and says: "Nazi's...I hate those guys". A lot of people are saying the same about the Taliban and their defenders here. Regardless of opinion in Iraq, I assure you, the right thing is being done here in Afghanistan.

JLH

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