From Saturday Night: Panjshir

Ok, have had lots of questions about this photo. It is an old Russian armored personnel carrier. The Mujaheddin blew it up during the Soviet invasion and have kept it since (along with several stacks of artillery pieces, and such) were scattered all about.


I’m back at Baghram. All seems to be going well. In Panjshir it was really beautiful. I thought about trying to stay and work! It is more like high threat development than counter-insurgency operations. We didn’t have to wear our body armor, aka battle rattle, there or go out in the monstrously imposing Humvees. The team was well integrated and while it was small and remote, they had a good camaraderie.

The Panjshir province has a pretty remarkable history. It was the last part of Afghanistan to “Islamize” and was the only place that wasn’t taken by the Russians (and the rusted remnants of their equipment lie scattered around the mountains), or the Taliban. The people live in sparse communities scattered throughout the valleys in the mountains. The mountains are almost impassable except by donkey. That is slowly changing now with hundreds of millions of dollars being invested in a road that goes up the main valley and the establishment of rib roads. I would have loved to have come here 30 years ago and just walked through the mountains with an interpreter. It is easy to see the gradual encroachment of the global economy…and I really wish that wasn’t always the case. In some ways, it will be good when we are all the same, but I enjoy most the unique cultures, traditions, and perspectives of indigenous people around the world. We slowly are losing that which makes us different.

So, wearing my southerner hat, Panjshir helped me gain a bit of insight as to why some of the animosity is still found against the North in parts of the South. The devastation that was wrought really never hit home when I read the history books, but, driving through the mountains in Panjshir helped me understand a bit. Seeing how bare they were, I learned that the Soviets had their own version of a “scorched earth” policy. Seeing the naked mountains must have just served as a reminder of the hard and painful past. I’m glad I grew up in a part of the US that had some balance between the North and South and managed to escape some of the worst of it.

With the progress of our civilization, some of our best breakthroughs are in how to destroy one another. I wonder if that is really progress.

Written from the Pat Tillman (NFL all-star who was killed in Afghanistan) USO.

Peace…