#zormat

[soldierporn]

'Cause we don't know how to back down.

Spc. Robert Irwin, an infantryman of 2nd Platoon Dog Company, Task Force Gold Geronimo conducts a security patrol in the Paktya province. TF Gold Geronimo is part of the Spartan Brigade.

(Photo by Staff Sergeant Jason Epperson, 30 January 2012.)

[willafghanblog]

Z-town and October is flying by!

Still having challenges with building schools in areas that aren't yet permissive. This weekend we traveled to a project in Zormat, the site of several attacks on our convoys. The Haqqani network runs around in the mountain passes east of us but down here in this valley it's all Taliban, former and current. The tribes and sub-tribes here are very fractured and fiercely independent. They will play any and all sides to their advantage. There is a saying attributed to the Pashtuns here I don't know if they actually say it but it goes: "Me against by brother, my brother and I against my cousin, my cousin, my brother and I against the world!" Sounds pretty cool anyway. The district looks a lot like Mars: flat, dusty and rocky. It is one of the most populated districts in the province and everyone lives in fortified Qalats with plots of corn, nuts or wheat around their forts. To the east are the Shah-i-Kot Mountains. The last scene of Act 1 of this opera called OEF. This is where, in February 2002, Special Operations and a Brigade of the 101st Airborne tried to seal off the passes leading to Pakistan. It basically ended in a draw and the Al-Qaeda and Taliban cadres were able to sneak off to the tribal areas of Pakistan to regroup and recruit before coming back in force four years later. Today we go with a lot of firepower and vehicles, as the local unit's XO puts it: "with more soldiers than Xerxes took with him to Greece". I thought that was funny but there is a reason. Every time the PRT has attempted to inspect the quality of the construction here we have been attacked. Last time, from the tree line 400 meters away, came AK-47 fire and from further back rockets. There is also a Pakistani in the area known as "82" because he is handy with the 82 mm mortar. He also took some pretty accurate pot shots. This time however it goes quietly and the work here has actually improved from a few months ago when you could crumble the concrete with your bare hands. The following day we went into downtown Zormat for a shura, a large meeting with all the local elders. This is the most run-down, dusty town I have ever seen. Open sewers in the street (read dirt road) and trash piled everywhere, and this is the main drag! Shops keepers came out to see the crowd walking down the street to the district center. Nobody looks particularly friendly. In a decrepit park, (triangle shaped patch of gravel at the intersection of three roads with a water well in the center and more trash all around), three women in Burkas with little children sit begging or waiting for their male chaperone, not sure which. The dust was like baby powder and covered everything, kicked up constantly by the passing trucks and marching feet. At the Shura, there were about 150 locals and the discussion was development and our other large road project the Gardez to Ghazni (or GG) Road. The Deputy Governor and Chief of Police gave encouraging statements and asked the locals to support security so that this development could continue unabated. We returned without any incident. Life goes on in Z-town and October is flying by thankfully.