Camp Julien

Got to my permanent duty station last night (well, permanent for one year). I'm already glad I'm here because it's small and relaxed. I like the people I'm working with so far. My room (that's right, MY room) is a decent size for me. I'm used to a 10' x 5' room for 3 people on the boat, so this place is luxury. I get to sleep on a mattress which is better than the cots I've been sleeping on for the past 3 weeks.

Basically, this is a schoolhouse for teaching counter-insurgency techniques. And despite what a large part of America probably believes, that doesn't necessarily involve hunting down terrorists. In fact, there is little of that from what small portion I've learned. The majority of the lesson to be taught is respect for the culture and understanding of the Afghan mind. There is a huge difference in conventional warfare and ending an insurgency, and I'm proud to be here and be part of the effort to truly understand these people instead of just kill terrorists. The United States is here to help rebuild this country in the AFGHAN image and to help the government do the business needed to make this place stable.

What will be the best part of my job, in my opinion, is interacting with the locals. I'll be a purchasing agent here (for the lack of a better term), and quite often I will be buying services and materials from local Afghans. In my mind this is just awesome. We are putting money into their economy through their labor, building a base that we'll be handing over to them eventually. These are a proud people and they have every right to be; they work hard and 98% of them want a country they can call their own.

I've begun reading a book called 'Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban.' It's a great story to read, the history of invaders that have come into this country and departed, but not without leaving a little piece of themselves. I've been infused with a desire to learn about Massoud during my first convoy here. One of the intel guys was talking about him and said "He's a cool dude, check him out." If you aren't familiar with him, he was a very moderate Muslim that opposed Al-Queda and even warned of 9/11. In fact, he was killed 2 days before 9/11 because of his intentions to tell the world about it. I'll let you read about it.

Here's a picture of my room.