Echoes......

Echoes are an interesting phenomenon.

Defined as : the repetition of a sound resulting from reflection of the sound waves; a close parallel of a feeling, idea, style, etc.;

Echoes come back to remind us of the original occurrence....

My thoughts drift back to time on the dusty side of the world....sometimes when I least expect it. I am not sure why or what makes it happen but it is an odd experience

I was on the Silver line when the Ipod played the Talking Heads' "Life During Wartime"....

" Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons
packed up and ready to go
Heard of some gravesites, out by the highway
a place where nobody knows
The sound of gunfire, off in the distance
I'm getting used to it now "

"The sound of gunfire, off in the distance...." I was used to that and sometimes still expect it but unlikely that I will hear it back at home. The juxtaposition of the two places (home & battlefield) cause interesting issues....

Many who no longer travel the dusty side of things (AFGHN/IRAQ) speak about missing being back in the thick of it....I have known that feeling and tried to understand why I would feel that way.

The effects of PTSD are still a bit of a mystery to those who study the phenomenon....it comes and goes as it wants. Even with all the knowledge that I have acquired on the subject, I still don't know what to make of the experience when it happens.

" Transmit the message, to the receiver
hope for an answer some day
I got three passports, couple of visas
don't even know my real name
High on a hillside, trucks are loading
everything's ready to roll
I sleep in the daytime, I work in the nightime
I might not ever get home"

" Don't even know my real name..." The ways in which the experience of battle changes each of us varies....some report no change but most will see a measurable difference in themselves....Sebastian Junger writes about it in his book, "WAR" and states that he knows that he and others who have been under fire on the battlefield will never be the same....the experience is akin to what occurred with a Navy Chief when I was heading to Iraq....Our Regiment was at the deployment base in Kuwait and were gearing up for our push to Fallujah. As we were getting ready, there was a Chief from the Unit we were relieving who came down to Kuwait as part of the transfer of command....

We were cleaning our weapons and asked him what "it" was like (being under fire) - what was going on and what could he tell us??? His answer puzzled me as he said, " I could tell you but you'll have to see it for yourself..."

At the time, I was really put off and couldn't figure out why he was unwilling to help us and provide the info we needed...That was until we arrived in Fallujah and the first rounds impacted " danger close" to our location. At that instant, the whole world came into crisp focus...my heightened senses were mainlining adrenaline as they have never before. The world changed forever.....there was no going back.....life as we knew it would never be the same. We had become different due to a natural reaction preprogrammed into our brains that reacts to direct threats to life & limb..We were alive as we had never been before...almost a rebirth if that makes sense.

"This ain't no party, this ain't no disco
this ain't no fooling around
This ain't no mudd club, or C. B. G. B.
I ain't got time for that now..."

"This ain't no fooling around.." Nope, life as I and my shipmates knew it were irrevocably changed. This is life and death - truly.

Many of my shipmates in the Marines never made it out of there....never saw another sunny day, a drive to the Cape, enjoy a night out with the buddies, get a hug from the wife & kids...never again. That had a lasting effect on me and that effect is still interrupting my daily life to this day.

So the ride on the Silver Line did not cause a problem - it was some random piece of the mechanism in my cranium deciding that something it sensed was akin to being back on the dusty side of the world and reactivated a dormant connection. Nevertheless, I am one of the lucky ones.

I will only have to carry the memories while others will not have to worry about it as they have gone to their final resting place.....

" Do not complain about growing old....some never get the opportunity"- Irish Proverb

For now, I will stay "on mission" and look to work with those who have a better understanding of the PTSD issue and help me to be here and "live in the moment".

And the Ipod moves along to the next song, "Crystal Ball" by Styx

I wonder what tomorrow has in mind for me
Or am I even in it's mind at all
Perhaps I'll get a chance to look ahead and see
Soon as I find myself a crystal ball
Soon as I find myself a crystal ball

Tell me, tell me where I'm going
I don't know where I've been
Tell me, tell me, won't you tell me
And then tell me again
My heart is breaking, my body's aching
And I don't know where to go
Tell me, tell me, won't you tell me
I've just got to know

GO HEAVY or GO HOME.....

It seems that the people in the 5 sided wind tunnel on the Potomac are taking the AFGHN thingee seriously.....They must have reviewed the "Leadership law of Battle"

Leadership Law of Battle

If it was risky, it worked and no one got hurt: you were brilliant
If it was risky, it worked and someone got hurt; you were courageous
If it was risky, it didn't work and no one got hurt; you were lucky
If it was risky, it didn't work and someone got hurt; you were stupid (and probably dead)

All fighting in AFGHANISTAN has been risky...the issue has been what were we going do to prove that we were taking the threat of the idjits amassed on the AFGHN/PAK border areas who have been making lots of noise. Europe was recently the center of increased threats for serious terrorist activity...add into that the the DEMS need POTUS to act decisively to show that they are able to handle the larger threats, and it all adds up to " GO HEAVY or GO HOME"

In military or police operations, the rules of engagement (ROE) determine when, where, and how force shall be used. Such rules are both general and specific, and there have been large variations between cultures throughout history. The rules may be made public...

It seems that in this case, the Warfighters are GOING HEAVY on a specific area of AFGHN and doing so to take out a source of support for the Taliban. I hope they are highly successful and are able to inflict some serious damage to the Taliban......They didn't want to have the mission on TV and are likely fighting this battle as war should be fought, ruthlessly and to WIN. About frickin' time.... I have seen the effort that troops have put in, it is about time that the Generals allow the troops to take the fight into the hills with the full force of our heavy bombers to find the Taliban and knock them dead in their tracks.

Journalist Embeds Canceled In Afghanistan
by Ben Gilbert
October 18, 2010

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – A major military operation involving hundreds of American troops, U.S. Special Forces and heavy bombers dropping 2,000-pound bombs on Taliban command and control centers wrapped up last week, concluding a critical phase in the campaign to oust the Taliban from Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province.
But no journalists were there to witness the operation.

U.S. military officials told journalists who had arrived to Kandahar Airfield for embeds in the Arghandab district between Oct. 1 and Oct. 15 that logistical problems had caused their embeds to be canceled.

Maj. Randy Taylor, head of the Media Support Center at Kandahar Airfield, said the canceled embeds were not an attempt by the military to limit media coverage of the war in the Arghandab district, long advertised by the U.S. military as one of three key objectives of this summer and fall's campaign in Kandahar province.

"[Task Force] Raider has had a capacity issue related to being able to house all the journalists who wanted to embed within their AO (Area of Operations)," Taylor said in an email. Task Force Raider is the name of the group of combat units responsible for the Arghandab district.

The New York Times, Agence France Presse, the military's independent Stars and Stripes newspaper, Swedish Radio and several other freelance photographers and reporters were among the embeds canceled or changed just hours or moments before they were scheduled to join U.S. military units in Arghandab district.

The operation was one part of a new push that began in September into the rural areas west of Kandahar City, which includes Arghandab, Zhari and Panjwai districts. All are traditional strongholds for the Taliban, who have long controlled parts of the region and whose fighters used the area as a kind of highway for movement of personnel and supplies.

A senior coalition official in southern Afghanistan, who asked his name not be used, said the offensive focused on the northwestern part of Arghandab district and, specifically, a village called Charqol Bah.The official described the village as a "command and control headquarters" for the Taliban.

The Arghandab River splits the farms and dense pomegranate groves of Arghandab district into two halves: east and west. U.S. forces based on the violent western side of the district during the last year have been hammered by near constant attacks on American bases. Improvised explosive devices have killed or maimed dozens of U.S. troops since they arrived last summer to help bolster the small Canadian force that had been responsible for Kandahar Province over the last four years.

This summer, one newly-arrived platoon of American soldiers to Arghandab district was declared combat ineffective in less than a month after losing eight men out of 17.
Last week’s operation focused on destroying the areas in western Arghandab district from which the Taliban mounted those attacks, regrouped, slept and built bombs.

The coalition official said the operation was "big army" in the classic sense. Artillery and other heavy weapons were employed, including bombers to drop thousands of pounds of explosives on bomb-making factories and other Taliban infrastructure. Long strings of explosives attached to rockets, called MICLICs, were used to clear mine-laden fields so troops could advance. Booby-trapped houses and compounds were also destroyed.

The official said U.S. and Afghan troops killed and detained dozens of Taliban fighters.
"The Taliban took a scrubbing," he said.

A reporter embedded at an American base just over a chain of jagged mountains dividing the Arghandab district from Kandahar City said he saw attack helicopters flying overhead and at night saw what he thought were signs of explosions in the Arghandab Valley.

"Between the mountains I could see the sky light up," said Richard Myrenberg of Swedish Radio.

Officials are calling the operation a success — a claim difficult to confirm since no journalists were there to witness it.

The day after the operation ended, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, U.S.-led coalition commander Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry visited the Arghandab District Center, where the district government is located, alongside U.S. and Afghan military bases. They met with district officials and elders from the area.

The trip was touted as Karzai's first visit to a district outside Kandahar City since becoming president in 2004.
"Arghandab is in a much better state than it was just six weeks ago," said British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, commander of all troops in the coalition's Regional Command – South, which includes Arghandab district in Kandahar province.

Carter said the military operation was complimented by a focus on strengthening the local governing capacity of the Arghandab district. He said the district governor and a new police chief are more representative of the Arghandab’s tribal make-up and are proving successful at attempts to reach out to the district’s inhabitants in an effort to improve security.

"When you combine that with the need to conduct one or two clearing operations that took place over the last two calendar weeks, what you find in Arghandab is a more positive environment," he said.
Carter said several indicators pointed toward Kandahar province improving in terms of security.

"In Arghandab now, it is easier for the district governor to go to the west bank of the Arghandab and to go to villages he wasn't able to go to before by himself, without protection," he said.
He also said travel on the key highway in the province is much safer than just a few months ago.

Carter acknowledged that the alleged success of the Arghandab district operation doesn't mean the Taliban is beaten. The third phase of the Kandahar campaign, involving clearing areas in Zhari and Panjwai districts, called Operation Dragon Strike, is now underway and troops have faced stiff Taliban resistance in places.
Assassinations and other attacks have also plagued Kandahar City in recent weeks.

Saturday night a bomb killed one person and injured four near the police headquarters in Kandahar city. Two weeks ago at least nine people died in two separate bomb attacks near police stations. The same week, the vice mayor of Kandahar city was gunned down outside his office in one of the city's more secure neighborhoods.

This summer was also the most violent since the war began, with more coalition combat deaths in June than any other month of the conflict since the U.S.-led invasion began almost nine years ago. With two months still left in the year, 2010 will go down as the most violent year of the war in Afghanistan so far. In the last week alone, 18 American troops have been killed across the country.

Coalition officials compare the increased casualties to the uptick in violence that accompanied the surge of U.S. troops in Iraq in 2008. Petraeus, commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, has long warned that the Afghan war would turn more violent before positive results of the surge would be seen.

Any positive developments this fall must also be measured against the fact that violence dips as the warm "fighting season" summer months change to the cooler fall climate, when snow and freezing temperatures are found along the Afghan border with Pakistan. The spring and summer months have been the most violent in Afghanistan since the war began in 2002