Gunner's Blog

All:

Sorry it has taken so long for me to update you on the situation in Afghanistan.  As you can imagine, it has been busy over here!  It hasn't slowed down a lot, but we are certainly proud of the accomplishments of the past week or so over here--it has been exciting, to say the least.

The successful elections are certainly the big news.  Well, at least the big news for a day or two.  Don't worry too much about the alleged "fraud;" while the ink mistake was unfortunate, it was not widespread and probably won't affect the election results at all, from what I hear in the press over here.  It's good that the ink and several other charges are being investigated, but even the U.N. says that the election was well done, and I can tell you they'd be one of the first to speak up if there were problems!.

The real story is the desire of the Afghan people to vote.  The weather here for election was the worst I've seen since I got here in May--snow in the mountains, rain, a sandstorm in the south,  and low clouds.  It hardly stopped these people.  We worry about rain affecting voter turnout in the States, even though we drive cars to vote--these people didn't let the weather bother them, and most walked to the polling centers!

I heard stories of lines over a mile long, with people waiting patiently to vote.  I also heard of people standing in those lines on crutches, with legs amputated because of landmines, and families who pulled their grandparents to vote in oxcarts, because they were too old to walk.  I also heard of people standing in lines at 3:00 in the morning, in the snow, so that they could vote.  (The polls opened at 7:00AM).   There are also a few stories of people angry because the polls closed early, or mad that they couldn't vote a proxy vote for members of their village that couldn't walk to the polling place, but those were actually rare. 

The Afghan Army and Police did a great job.  We've trained them well, and these patriots took their lives into their hands to guard polling centers, villages, and cities to ensure little or no violence.  Sure, we helped them prepare, but they found explosives, suspicious vehicles, rockets, and people who wanted to disrupt things all on their own.  No running from a fight for these folks!    

Finally, I leave you with a personal experience.  We have a group of Afghan men who clean the building where I work.  They're here every day and I see them in the hallway seven days a week.  They like to practice their English, or at least the English phrases they're learning in books or class:  "Good morning, How are you? I am fine, thank you..." You get the idea.  They didn't work on election day, because they were voting, and the roads were pretty congested.   I asked them the first morning they were back to work if they had voted.  They all got smiles a mile wide, had to show me their thumbs with ink on them, and each of them wanted to shake my hand and I got to congratulate each of them on their new country!  Now, if that doesn't bring a tear to your eye, then you have ice water in your veins!

As good as this is, we're not done yet.  There are still some out there that would like to cut off thumbs, rather than stain them with ink.   But that group is up against a dedicated, capable Coalition that will not accept failure.  They may have come over here "just doing their job;" but that changes with most as soon as they meet these great people--most in the Coalition are fighting not only for their own countries, but also they fighting for the great people of Afghanistan.   

We will continue the fight here.  As I've written before, you can be very proud of this young generation--whether soldiers, sailors, Airmen, Marines, or civilians, they are impressive!  Someday they'll take over the leadership of America, and from what I see over here, we'll be in great shape!!

Everybody take care--be proud of what's happening here!  I just wish you could have seen the pride in the eyes of those Afghans in the hallway; then you'd understand what we've done here!

Cheers

B******