We Can Be Heroes, If Just for One Day

So this is going to show that I blogged this on the 28^th, but it’s really on the 27^th, but since events are still sharp, I want to be sure to cover all of this.

One of the projects funded here by the US government has to do with press.  They work with press, starting to develop an Afghan press…really very cool stuff, mostly centered around reconstruction projects here in the IRoA.

Not sure if anyone remembers the 18 January MLK “celebration” that was had downtown here, but these folks we talked with today had a chance to interview the Afghan commandoes who stormed the buildings occupied by the bad guys, saved a bunch of lives, and basically gave said bad guys more than they’d bargained for in terms of resistance by Afghan forces.

Let me help those of you wondering what the big deal is…NATO-trained Afghans, without any NATO support, went TO a firefight and kept civilian casualties to 0 dead. 

They ran TO, not FROM a fight.

This is significant.

Not that they lack in the bravery (some read “stupidity”) it takes to run toward the chaos and melee, but that they hadn’t been properly trained before this.  This time, they were ready.

These QRF came from outside Kabul within 30 minutes of the start of the attack.  Credit, too, the local security forces (police, other military entities) that kept the attackers at bay until the assault unit arrived and was able to finally successfully combat the insurgent incursion.

Sidebar:  alliteration is fun.

Sad part?  I may have missed it, but this didn’t get a lot of coverage on NBC or any of the other news outlets.  In fact, it probably didn’t get covered by the press at all.

In the States, these guys would be heroes, faces plastered all over the place, we’d have to listen to idiotic morning show hosts ask questions like, “So, were you scared at any point?”  “Well no, that’s what we’re trained to do.”  “Wow…I’d be like, so scared, wouldn’t you, Al?”  “I sure would…and you know what else is scary?  The weather on the East Coast…let’s take a look now…” 

Nothing like that here or anywhere else for these guys.  Got some pictures of all of them…working on maybe getting some of them signed and put up on my wall…would really like to meet them sometime, shake their hands, tell them how impressive that is.

Sure, so I’m hungry for a good news story right now…and I found one.  May be the only one for a while, but I found one. 

General Afghan reaction to all of this?  “Why’d they burn down that building?”  I told our host that the same thing happens in the States whenever SWAT or someone else exerts a great deal of force in the interest of protecting the public.  He also shared that people have learned over the years to care only about themselves, since caring about other people can be harmful to your health, and it makes it hurt a lot less if you only care about yourself and someone else dies.

So maybe part of it is making them care about each other again?  Sheesh…I keep this up and I’m going to have find a tree to hug, and hug, and hug.