The best things about being in Afghanistan:
I missed the Oscars.
I missed Joan Rivers for five wonderful months. She looks like the Joker in Batman. Who pays to look llike that?
I missed the Screen Actors awards.
I missed the Peoples Awards and don't really know what they are.
I missed the NBA All Star weekend.
I missed the Grammy's.
I missed everything that has to do with someone named GAGA.
I missed everything that has to do with Charlie Sheen.
I haven't heard from Rush Limbaugh in five months.
I might sign up again.
sunny slopes of the hindu kush
Willard Kurtz's room
Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
John Shaft to the Hindu Kush on the double
Who is the black private Dick that is a sex machine to all the chicks?
Shaft? You damn right.
Who is the man who will risk his neck for his brotherman? Shaft
Who is the cat who won't cop out when there is danger all about? Shaft. Right on.
Who is the man who will risk his neck for his brotherman?
Shaft. Can you dig it?
They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother.....Shut your mouth. But I'm talking about Shaft. Then we can dig it.
We need John Shaft on the double
He is a complicated man but no one understands him but his woman. John Shaft
Shaft? You damn right.
Who is the man who will risk his neck for his brotherman? Shaft
Who is the cat who won't cop out when there is danger all about? Shaft. Right on.
Who is the man who will risk his neck for his brotherman?
Shaft. Can you dig it?
They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother.....Shut your mouth. But I'm talking about Shaft. Then we can dig it.
We need John Shaft on the double
He is a complicated man but no one understands him but his woman. John Shaft
Thursday, February 17, 2011
60 months out of 120 months
He is wiry, alert or just looks caffeinated. He comes in every morning to return movies and pick up a couple more. 110 straight days of movie watching for him. It is more than a diversion. Yesterday, I handed him the Quiet American with Michael Caine. The movie is about America’s slow dance with Vietnam or the start of the dance.
He came back today and gave the movie a thumbs up. “I’ve been deployed five times in the last ten years,” he said. “I used to be a truly believer and now…I think we are here so contractors can get rich.”
Ten years means you can start to feel the pension. “I think I am getting out,” he said.
He came back today and gave the movie a thumbs up. “I’ve been deployed five times in the last ten years,” he said. “I used to be a truly believer and now…I think we are here so contractors can get rich.”
Ten years means you can start to feel the pension. “I think I am getting out,” he said.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Where are they?
In December we had three or four rocket attacks in one week. This was up from the year before. We went to the bunkers and looked up at the sky as if we could interpret meaning. We played it cool. Rocket attacks are like lightening storms. When you see the lightening and hear the thunder in the distance you're fine. When it cracks right next to you then you become something else.
January has come and gone and so have the attacks on Bagram. I would be in my B-Hut after dinner waiting for the Big Voice to broadcast "Incoming, Incoming" and now nothing. The Big Voice will come on in the afternoon letting us know there will be a controlled detonation. Eventually, you hear a boom and maybe the room will shake.
Now I wait in my B-hut wondering what are they doing out there. They don't take vacations.
January has come and gone and so have the attacks on Bagram. I would be in my B-Hut after dinner waiting for the Big Voice to broadcast "Incoming, Incoming" and now nothing. The Big Voice will come on in the afternoon letting us know there will be a controlled detonation. Eventually, you hear a boom and maybe the room will shake.
Now I wait in my B-hut wondering what are they doing out there. They don't take vacations.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
reflections at night
My admiration for the Chinese Poet Li Po grows with each year. I am reading this poem in a spartan 8x10 room. Li Po wrote this 1400 years ago thinking of me.
Quiet Night Thoughts
Before my Bed
there is bright moonlight
so that is seems
like frost on the ground:
Lifting my head
I watch the moon,
Lowering my head
I dream that I am home.
Li Po
Quiet Night Thoughts
Before my Bed
there is bright moonlight
so that is seems
like frost on the ground:
Lifting my head
I watch the moon,
Lowering my head
I dream that I am home.
Li Po
translations
When a soldier says, “Too easy” he is referring that there is a good chance your problem can be fixed. I first heard this at Ft. Benning and repeated all the time over here. It is always said with a clipped upbeat tempo. Underneath the radar, he is thanking God he caught a break with something that is solvable.
When a soldier says, “It is what it is” he is referring to his current situation as being hopelessly fucked.
Petareaus on Karsai – “It is what it is.”
General Stanley McCrystal on Rolling Stone – “It is what it is.”
Any soldier on his first, second, third deployment …, “It is what it is.”
When a soldier says, “It is what it is” he is referring to his current situation as being hopelessly fucked.
Petareaus on Karsai – “It is what it is.”
General Stanley McCrystal on Rolling Stone – “It is what it is.”
Any soldier on his first, second, third deployment …, “It is what it is.”
Saturday, January 15, 2011
winning the hearts and minds
Almos and his band of Afghan handy men still clean certain areas of Cherry-Beasley. Almos wears a sports coat that looks like a K-Mart knock off. He leads with a swagger, a little panache and a touch of verve. Sinatra in his lean years come to mind or Bobby Brown on a high. Almos has discovered the American smoke break. He now smokes a pack day while at work. He and his henchman go to the designated gazebo for smokers, light up and pontificate. Marvelous.
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