James’ Ranting Blog

5 Sep 07: It’s September in Afghanistan, five months in country, 8 months since I left home. I thought I would give a description of an average mission for our Team. Our mission today was relatively simple, we were to conduct a groundbreaking ceremony for a new District Center in the Salang District of the Parwan Province and then conduct our weekly Provincial Development Meeting at the Deputy Governor’s residence. Our planning called for us to meet the Governor, Deputy Governor, and the contractor at the Governor’s office and then follow them into the valley. We expected an easy mission since this was a very permissive area, the area saw some heavy fighting against the Soviets and the Taliban. The Salang valley is mountainous with only one real road In and out. I had not been this far north in the Province but we all expected an easy day. We departed Bagram a little after 0800 and headed for the Governor’s residence, all was going well until we come upon a village and discovered that the construction crew we had paving the road was putting in drainage pipes and had a gaping ditch across the road. We dismounted and after our Convoy Commander (Army E-5) assessed it he said we could cross using some sheets of old Soviet metal, and so he carefully guided all of our UAHs (Up Armored Humvee) safely across. We mounted up and were off. We hit the city of Charikar in the middle of market day so the streets were crowded with everything from cars to donkeys. We carefully picked our way through the crown and made it to the Governor’s office, where we discovered that the contractor was delayed. So now, a 5 minute stop was turning into a long delay. The Governor invited us in for the obligatory chi (tea) as we waited. Eventually the contractor arrived and then the first bombshell was dropped. The Governor informed us all that he had changed his mind on where he wanted his District Center……….what? The Contractor was not happy, we were not happy and so the “negotiations” began. The contractor wanted more money…..the deputy governor suddenly chimed in and said the new site was better ad would be easier to build on. We agreed to follow them to the site and examine. So we mounted up…….the Governor and his party hopped in their armored SUVs (Paid for by the US) and took off like bats out of hell. They were gone in minutes…..we had no idea where we were going in the valley so we took off after them, our heavy trucks whining in the thinning air and steep climbs. As we rounded a corner, afghan cars and trucks whipping by in the opposite lane we pass an Afghan National Police checkpoint on the left and realized the Governor and his party had stopped there. There was nowhere to turn around our armored beasts so we pressed ahead to the District Center. As we continued to climb we opted to pull over at a spot large enough to accommodate our chariots. As we stopped to assess our options, the Governor passed us by, traveling at nearly the speed of sound without fear. We loaded up and chased after them. After arriving at the District Center we secured the perimeter and established an out cordon for security and walked to join the Governor. No sooner did we greet him than he dashed off. We had no idea where the Deputy Governor’s house was so we grabbed the District Chief and told him to wait for us, he began to argue, but we strategically placed our trucks so as to not allow him to leave. We again told him to lead us on but to drive slowly. Another 15 minutes of mountain climbing and we arrived at the Deputy Governor’s house. His house sat on the roadside with only a minimal shoulder on the opposite roadside. Those of us going inside dismounted and entered the house. We held our Provincial Development Meeting on a terrace looking over a river valley. Afterwards we had lunch and agreed to meet the Governor at the ANP station we had passed in order to review the site as a potential location for the District Center.

5 Sep 07: It’s September in Afghanistan, five months in country, 8 months since I left home. I thought I would give a description of an average mission for our Team. Our mission today was relatively simple, we were to conduct a groundbreaking ceremony for a new District Center in the Salang District of the Parwan Province and then conduct our weekly Provincial Development Meeting at the Deputy Governor’s residence. Our planning called for us to meet the Governor, Deputy Governor, and the contractor at the Governor’s office and then follow them into the valley. We expected an easy mission since this was a very permissive area, the area saw some heavy fighting against the Soviets and the Taliban. The Salang valley is mountainous with only one real road In and out. I had not been this far north in the Province but we all expected an easy day. We departed Bagram a little after 0800 and headed for the Governor’s residence, all was going well until we come upon a village and discovered that the construction crew we had paving the road was putting in drainage pipes and had a gaping ditch across the road. We dismounted and after our Convoy Commander (Army E-5) assessed it he said we could cross using some sheets of old Soviet metal, and so he carefully guided all of our UAHs (Up Armored Humvee) safely across. We mounted up and were off. We hit the city of Charikar in the middle of market day so the streets were crowded with everything from cars to donkeys. We carefully picked our way through the crown and made it to the Governor’s office, where we discovered that the contractor was delayed. So now, a 5 minute stop was turning into a long delay. The Governor invited us in for the obligatory chi (tea) as we waited. Eventually the contractor arrived and then the first bombshell was dropped. The Governor informed us all that he had changed his mind on where he wanted his District Center……….what? The Contractor was not happy, we were not happy and so the “negotiations” began. The contractor wanted more money…..the deputy governor suddenly chimed in and said the new site was better ad would be easier to build on. We agreed to follow them to the site and examine. So we mounted up…….the Governor and his party hopped in their armored SUVs (Paid for by the US) and took off like bats out of hell. They were gone in minutes…..we had no idea where we were going in the valley so we took off after them, our heavy trucks whining in the thinning air and steep climbs. As we rounded a corner, afghan cars and trucks whipping by in the opposite lane we pass an Afghan National Police checkpoint on the left and realized the Governor and his party had stopped there. There was nowhere to turn around our armored beasts so we pressed ahead to the District Center. As we continued to climb we opted to pull over at a spot large enough to accommodate our chariots. As we stopped to assess our options, the Governor passed us by, traveling at nearly the speed of sound without fear. We loaded up and chased after them. After arriving at the District Center we secured the perimeter and established an out cordon for security and walked to join the Governor. No sooner did we greet him than he dashed off. We had no idea where the Deputy Governor’s house was so we grabbed the District Chief and told him to wait for us, he began to argue, but we strategically placed our trucks so as to not allow him to leave. We again told him to lead us on but to drive slowly. Another 15 minutes of mountain climbing and we arrived at the Deputy Governor’s house. His house sat on the roadside with only a minimal shoulder on the opposite roadside. Those of us going inside dismounted and entered the house. We held our Provincial Development Meeting on a terrace looking over a river valley. Afterwards we had lunch and agreed to meet the Governor at the ANP station we had passed in order to review the site as a potential location for the District Center.

WOW, another day that can only be described as awesome!  On Sunday we learned that one of our Provincial Governors was relieved by President Karzai (http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/world/8539227.html).  After that news, all heck broke lose as Coalition and Afghan leaders reacted to the news.  The Governor, who was educated in America and held a MA, was the strongest of our two Governors.  Well anyways, we received a phone call from one of the Provincial leaders and wanted to meet with us on Monday morning in Kabul.  We were to fly down to Kabul the next morning and hold quick discussions on the future of reconstruction efforts in his districts.  Our Operations Officer reacted quickly and made the necessary arrangements for us to catch a flight the next day.  On Monday I walked down to the rotary wing PAX terminal and held our seats.  We were to fly on UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters.  The flight, only 20 minutes long was awesome.  We flew with the doors open and it was exciting to see the countryside from the air.  I took lots of pics and two videos to help share the experience.  After we arrived at Kabul Intl Airport our Brigade Commander called off the meeting so we turned around and caught the next helo back to base.  All in all, another day where I find myself doing things I never thought I would ever see myself doing.  

Our nation began with these stirring words in the Declaration of Independence: “When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” Now, 231 years later, they still ring true.

We may envision the Founders as rash, rowdy rebels. Not so. Already accomplished in fields of endeavor, they were settled in character and reputation. They deemed their decision necessary, and their first thought was of “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind.” They were men of purpose and principle, who well understood the peril of choosing to declare independence from Great Britain. Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote to John Adams, “Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the House when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe to what was believed by many at that time to be our death warrants?”

The Founders reasoned that the colonials were compelled to the separation, outlining a detailed list of particulars describing the King of Great Britain’s “long train of abuses and usurpations” that could end only in an intended “absolute despotism” and “establishment of absolute tyranny over these states.” They appealed that the free citizens they represented therefore had both a right and a duty “to alter their former systems of government” and “to provide new guards for their future security.”

They further explained, “In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” They had been patient, measured and restrained in responding to the incursions on their freedoms but could be so no longer.

The central passage of the Declaration’s opening is the document’s most famous, suggesting the form of government truly fit for a free people: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

The Founders sought liberty, not license—rather than a loosening of restraints, a freedom to pursue right. The objective was citizens’ safety and happiness, later called “the common defense,” “the general welfare,” and the “blessings of liberty.” The mottos of the American Revolution were “No King but King Jesus!” and “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”

Given their experiences with a leader who had violated the laws supposed to control his own conduct as much as theirs, the Founders sought to avoid the instability of democracy or of oligarchy, in which one or a handful of people can overturn the foundations by a simple vote or decree. Fisher Ames warned, “The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.” John Witherspoon referred to pure democracy as “very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage.” The Founders ultimately chose a constitutional democratic republic—based on the foundation of the reliable rule of law, responsive to the people’s “consent of the governed” through representation of the citizens, predicated on the virtue of the people.

The colonists came to these shores with a learned tradition of liberty, and this new land offered a manner of living that further taught freedom. Our performance in upholding this heritage is mixed. We are divided as a nation, no longer pressing toward unity and allegiance to shared principles. Facile commentary lauds comity as the antidote for what the Founders derided as faction, applauding the elitist establishment fetish for bipartisanship. But they are exactly wrong. Indeed, bipartisanship today is more akin to factionalism than are those adhering to the two major political parties out of principle.

There remains one crucial question: What are we willing to risk to salvage the heritage our Founders handed down to us? Our warriors in the field have demonstrated that they stand in the direct line from our Patriot Founders—prepared to sacrifice all in service. Many activist citizens gave time, effort and resources to turn aside the Senate’s recent attempts to foist a dangerous change in immigration laws on the nation. But the United States as a nation is not as secure as at its tenuous beginnings.

The signers of the Declaration concluded their treatise, “We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States… And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” Do we citizens, inheritors of the Republic bequeathed us, still stand ready to hazard even half so much?

Taken From Patriot Post

30 Jun 07: Oh well, I suppose my feeble attempts at keeping this blog updated have failed. I guess I need to recap the last month and half. The Afghan government (IROA) has challenged its provincial governors to develop Provincial Development Plans that will tie into the national strategy. Our two Provinces (Parwan and Kapisa) were the first Provinces to attempt this. Our PRT was an integral part of the governments planning. The UN and USAID were also key to the efforts. After these very important meetings we were saddened by the loss of a local woman who owned a private radio station. She was a key leader in the Parwan province and a staunch supporter of the Coalition forces. She was assassinated in her home while sleeping with her young children. Her husband who was at the radio station is now left to raise six kids. Her loss hit us hard since we had just met with her a few weeks prior. Her leadership was significant enough to warrant a statement from First Lady Laura Bush. Our Brigade Command met with the Governor and issued a joint statement condemning her murder. We then departed on our most dangerous mission to date. We facilitated a meeting between the village elders and Shurahs and the Governor in an area where the Taliban was extremely active. Our Brigade Commander and the Governor spoke to the Afghan leaders assuring them that only when the Taliban were no longer supported could we begin to give them projects and other development they wanted. It was eerie to sit in a room with Afghans that were certainly Taliban. We were not engaged by the enemy, but with the firepower we brought they would have been annihilated. Our PRT performed another medical engagement, treating several hundred Afghans. We worked side by side with Afghan doctors and medical staff in an Afghan hospital. We also opened new roads in our area, connecting Districts and increasing the Afghan’s capacity to further develop their economy. Every project, every school, road, well, clinic, bridge is all aimed at one single objective….strengthening the self-sufficiency fo the IROA.