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Well it was just announced this morning that July is the deadliest month in Afghanistan for US forces. This sounds like a deja-vu as we have been hearing this almost every summer month since 2006, but the truth is that each month keeps breaking this terrible record. Every year since 2006 has gotten progressively worse.
It is a sad fact, but it is a fact. War is hell and people die. It sucks and it is painful but that is the point. I mean if it were easy and painless then we would do it all the time without a thought.
We have more people in Afghanistan than any other time in history. That means more targets for the enemy to try and kill. We are also pushing into more enemy safe havens than ever before.
Stay the course America. I know you have the stomach for it. You did in Iraq and we have won there, so I know you can do it for Afghanistan.
By God, if you read no other blog entry today, please go HERE and read about CPL Joe Wrightsman from his old First Sergeant. Semper Fi Corporal, Semper Fi….
My very close friend, fellow blogger and co-host on You Served Radio has taken up a cause to champion and I am proud to say that finally the national media is taking notice. CJ has went after the Nigerian Scammers with a fever and spends a lot of hours researching, tracking and exposing them. CNN has taken notice and now they have interviewed him for a story they are doing on the subject. I am very proud to call him a friend.
• 26 Feb: Mawlid al-Nabi (Birth of the Prophet Muhammad) • 21 Mar: Nowruz (Persian New Year) • 28 Apr: Victory of the Muslim Nation (Withdrawal of Soviet Forces) • 01 May: Labor Day • 19 Aug: National Day (Independent Sovereignty from Britain) • 09 Sep: Masood Day, commemorating the assassination of Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Masood • 10 Sep: Eid al-Fitr (After a month of fasting, Afghans visit and/or entertain their friends and give gifts) • 15 Nov: Eid-al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice — commemorates the Prophet Abraham’s devotion to God) • 16 Dec: Ashura (Shi’a day of mourning commemorating the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Husayn at the Battle of Karbala in 680 C.E.)
Note: The week prior to Eid al-Fitr is an appropriate time to provide performance or other types of bonuses to Afghan national employees such as interpreters/translators; dates for religious holidays are approximated; each year the holidays are adjusted to the lunar calendar
I am amazed at the mainstream media and the wannabe mainstream media in this world. Last week the Washington Post published a 3 day series of stories that they spent two years researching and investigating to expose many of the locations, agencies and companies who help this country with its intelligence gathering tasks.
I am not sure what their purpose was or why they did it? I mean to say “see look what harm we can do to our great country that we all live in”. Did they think that Americans didn’t know we have many, many people and groups dedicated to try and keep this country safe and that they must work in a classified world to do that?
Now we have wikileaks at it again exposing some 90,000 US military records that they somehow came in possession of that are all about Afghanistan and our operations there.
As per the wikileaks site…
The reports cover most units from the US Army with the exception of most US Special Forces’ activities. The reports do not generally cover top secret operations or European and other ISAF Forces operations.
We have delayed the release of some 15,000 reports from the total archive as part of a harm minimization process demanded by our source. After further review, these reports will be released, with occasional redactions, and eventually in full, as the security situation in Afghanistan permits.
I mean look at their own admission that they are not respecting their source and will be releasing another 15,000 reports which could cause harm.
These guys are despicable and need to quit stealing oxygen from the rest of us. I mean if they hate the US and its military that much, I would be glad to take all the idiots that work at wikileaks to Afghanistan so they can do the fighting. I know a great place to drop them that will guarantee they will see some action and they can fight to their death right there. In fact, I bet they can video that too. I bet the Taliban would even video some of it for them as they cut off the heads of the wikileaks people. Not sure how they will “leak” it since they would all be dead already.
I consider these people enemies of the state and if I were President for a day, I would consider them top High-Value Targets that should be dealt with accordingly.
In 1969 Afghanistan tried its hand at compulsory public education for children between the ages of 7 and 15, but the initiative never had a chance to grow roots. When the Soviets invaded 10 years later, many programs, including compulsory public education, were terminated. Prior to 1969, education was purely at the discretion of the family. Even then, much of the education offered concentrated on rote memory of the Quran, and was reserved for males only.
Families that elected not to send their children to school often did so out of a need for extra hands to maintain the household and field duties. Dari is the language of the educated in Afghanistan. Regardless of their ethnicity, if a family could pool the resources to send their children through an extensive education, they would become fluent in the Dari language. But after the Soviet withdrawal, any semblance of public education disappeared. Even Kabul University closed its doors. The Taliban had a very different approach to education. Outside of religious education for boys only, public education was forbidden, especially for girls. The result of the last three decades is a literacy rate less than 40%. Most of the literate were concentrated in urban areas, while rural locations accounted for less than 10% of the literate.
GEN Stanley McChrystal retired yesterday and in spite of the controversy that surrounded his resignation, he went out with style. We here at Bouhammer.com wish you the best of luck and good wishes in the next stage of your career, sir.
