During last month’s sex scandals involving Tampa socialites, biography writers, and military generals, many people in the Coastal Bend were horrified to learn there is still a shooting war going on in Afghanistan. The American Army hasn’t forgotten about the shooting war. In a demonstration of focusing on the unimportant instead of the important, the Army is writing up new guidelines for soldiers interacting with Afghans. Check out these pearls of wisdom:

“… offers a list of “taboo conversation topics” that soldiers should avoid, including “making derogatory comments about the Taliban,” “advocating women’s rights,” “any criticism of pedophilia,” “directing any criticism towards Afghans,” “mentioning homosexuality and homosexual conduct” or “anything related to Islam.”

I spent over eight years living in Afghanistan working almost exclusively with an Afghan crew built around a nucleus of trusted Afghan friends. Making “derogatory comments” about the Taliban, criticizing Afghans (particularly politicians), busting their balls about dancing boys, noting the fact that they have more terms for buggery then the Eskimos have for snow, and teasing them about their cultural mores was how we bonded.

I learned over the years working in Afghanistan that people are people no matter where you are. When operating in an active conflict zone the only way to learn how to interact effectively with the locals is to engage with the locals. One has to build up a baseline of trust which can not be done without open and honest communication. There are huge variations between Afghans and Westerners in what constitutes acceptable topics for public conversation, but learning the cultural norms is not hard and doesn’t take long.

The ISAF mission in Afghanistan now seems to be focused on training Afghan security forces in the way of the gun, so they can defend what is now recognized as the most corrupt government in the world.  Our “COIN Doctrine” remains silent on what to do when the government one is trying to support is the most corrupt in the world.

Explaining how US AID works to Governor Barahowi, Kang District, Nimroz Province, December 2010. When we arrived at the district intake canal opening ceremony, I received a message on my cell phone in English that said, “Welcome to Iran”. Why would that be in English?

The military has learned how to operate inside the bureaucracy using the same techniques the “outside the wire crew” used over the years. This is a quote from a Belmont Club post that I also quoted in this prescient November 2009 FRI post on Counter-Bureaucracy:

“In other words, they wanted to give the troops a chance against the bureaucracy.   In that fight, the troop’s main weapon was the habitual relationship, a word which apparently signifies the informal networks that soldiers actually use to get around the bureaucracy. If done by the book most everything might actually be impossible. Only by performing continuous expedients is anything accomplished at all.”

It seems strange that the Army goes to Afghanistan for over a decade, learns how to operate Afghan style inside their own bureaucracy, yet fails to apply the same solution in their dealings with Afghans. They do not have the patience, time or ability to develop the “habitual relationships” required to navigate inside Afghan society.  As a result they devise ludicrous short-sighted strategies such as walking on eggshells around Afghan troops.

Also in the linked FRI post was the definitive description of “COIN” by my good friend Mullah John.  I think it has withstood the test of time.

  ”COIN is the graduate level of war: complete nonsense. COIN is police work, a touch of CT with decent municipal services. To say that handing out welfare in Logar (Eastern Province in Afghanistan) requires even the same level of military expertise as conducting Overlord or the Six Day War is utter rubbish.

It’s hubris designed to make Petreaus et al seem to be considerably more clever than they actually are and also serves to justify the continued existence of the US Army at its current size and holds out the hope however unlikely, that Zen Masters like the object of the article have the magical answer to Pashtoon objections to foreign armies being in their country: Poetry! Of course why didn’t we all see it and VON KRIEGE in the original German ! and Sun Tzu and captains being allowed to spend money EUREKA!

BTW thinking outside the box normally describes thought at odds with received wisdom and certainly with the entire chain of command.”

Here is long and very sad story by Dr. Peretz Partensky from the Synergy Strike Force. It is the first of what will become many upsetting tales concerning Afghans who befriended and worked with us “foreigners”. Below is an extract from the end of Peretz’s fascinating story:

“On August 21, motorcycle gunmen targeted Sudir and Najib’s car. Sudir managed to accelerate away unharmed. The rear windshield was shattered and three bullets lodged inside the cabin, including one in the driver’s seat.

“Najib wrote to share a rumor of a circulating kill list with forty names. All of these people are Afghans who have been associated with Americans. His family has asked him to leave Jalalabad because his presence presents a danger to them. His cousins have split up his land with a ritual rite of inheritance, as if he were dead. An old friend of his from the orphanage in Tashkent, whom he’s found on a Russian social network, has taken him in.

Sudir’s family’s land was also confiscated, by neighbors invoking Ghanima law, which says that you can pillage the land of your enemies. Sudir had been saving earnings from his work for the SSF, but supporting his displaced family has now burned through these resources.”

These days, I hesitate to log onto Facebook or Skype, partly to avoid conversations (like one below) with one of my former Afghan crew, a competent engineer who is a good man:

Dear Mr. Tim,

Good day I hope you and your family are doing well,

It has been long time that I have not heard of you ? Where are you in these days. Here in Afghanistan we see lots of new programs runing under USA fund but I dont know about your plan is there any plan you to have some USA fund for our country or not . If there is fund or program with you for our country please contact us to help you in implementaion or if you dont please try to get some fund for programs. Beucase this is the time that USA again provided fund in Afghanistan .

I have Mr. S******* former ### International security manager say hello to you and to your family and he has also imphasized that you need to come Afghanistan and help your formers subardonates getting jobs, otherwise we are about to be taken by flood , you know what I mean if  you dont have support you will have never  job by your own qulification. Eventually, we need you here our big loin .

Best Regards:

G**** And S*********

These notes break my heart as I contemplate the misfortune that has befallen our friends in Jalalabad.  Sudir and Najib are pseudonyms for guys who are not only college graduates but talented Fab Labbers. They also, along with my son Logan, built out the Jbad Fab Fi system. What’s happening to them is a disaster and there seems to be nothing any of us can do for them.

From left to right Dan (friend of Matthew VanDyke), Mehrab, Matthew VanDyke and I outside the Taj in November of 2010. Mehrab was gunned down outside his home in August 2012.

As I have said repeatedly in the past, Afghanistan is not going to end well.  There was a time when many of us who worked there had hope for some sort of acceptable endstate.  That hope is about gone, as are too many good friends like the late manager of the Taj Mehrabudin Saraj pictured above with Matthew VanDyke and I in Jalalabad, November 2010.

The next two years are going to be painful for those of us who have friends, family or interest in Afghanistan.  I’m not sure I can sit them out either but, at the moment, have no plans to go back.  I’m not going to be able to watch my friends suffer because they spent years loyally working with me. I’m not sure what I can do but do know doing nothing is not an option.

Note from Baba Tim:  This was a posted on my former blog, Free Range International (FRI) right before the 2008 Presidential Election.  It seems like a good time to update it and repost.

One of the coolest things about living in Afghanistan is the sense of history which surrounds you as you trek off the beaten path. In rural districts, the people’s daily routine has altered little over the past few hundred years. It is easy to find the sites of historic battles or ancient ruins that few westerners have ever been able to see. I was invited to the remote village of Gandamak, which was the scene of a horrific battle in January 1842. I immediately accepted because I knew I’d be protected while I was there. The key to working alone in remote villages is trust. My hosts are heavily armed and, for the time being, accepting the central government. Regardless, I had no idea of the nature of their true loyalties. They invited me to visit their village, with an inherent promise of protection that is part of Pashtunwali. I may never know if these guys were then or are now Taliban, but I did know that I was under their protection and never questioned my personal safety.

Despite their culture of warm hospitality to guests and strangers, their political culture remains polarized, vicious, and deadly. These are tribal lands with a small percentage of “haves” and a large population of “have not’s.” The “haves” are the leaders with positions determined at birth but are not resented by people at the village level because they do not “have” much more than their fellow tribal members. The “have not’s” do not agitate politically because they spend most of their lives trying to find the next meal. Unlike America’s economically disadvantaged, most health issues Afghans deal with are not caused by morbid obesity. Poor people here die daily of starvation. Many poor children die from exposure during the harsh winters. Unlike people in the west, death from everyday living is still an intimate part of  the Afghans’ reality.

The road into Gandamak required us to manuever over three separate stream beds. The bridges that once spanned these obstacles were destroyed about 25 years ago by the Soviets. When I made this trip four years ago, the army had already been fighting a “Stability Operations” battle for seven years. Eleven years after we started in Afghanistan, the bridges were still down, the power plants had not been fixed, and most roads were barely further developed than when Alexander the Great came through the Khyber Pass in 327 BC.

This bridge was destroyed by Soviet forces more than 25 years ago

Gandamak Village

The green foliage seen from afar was confined to dry stream beds. The fields were fallow, the village drainage ditches empty, the livestock lean, and the kids looked hungry. The trees, which provide comforting shade during the heat of summer, will be thinned out again this year to provide fuel for the swelling village population during the winter months. The elders are afraid that within the next five years, all the trees will be gone. While they understand that losing the these trees means losing the village, they have limited options.

There is very little water in or around the village

As the Maliks arrived, they started talking amongst themselves in hushed tones and I kept hearing the name “Barack Obama.” I was apprehensive back then because I was surrounded by Obama fanatics every Thursday night at the Taj bar. It was unpleasant talking with my guests at the Tiki Bar because they knew absolutely nothing about the election challenger other than he was not Bush, looked cool, and was African American. They were convinced he would be a great president because NPR and Jon Stewart said so. I did not want to explain presidential politics to the Maliks. They have time and will insist on hashing things out for as long as it takes to reach a clear understanding. I have a wrist watch and a short attention span. This was not starting off well.

Oh great let’s talk American presidential politics

As I feared, the morning discussion began with the question, “Tell us about Barack Obama?” What should I have said? The fact that his resume was thin was an understatement, but he has risen to the top of the democratic machine and that required some traits Pashtun Maliks could identify with. I described how he came to power in the Chicago machine using the oldest communication device known to man: a well-told story. This story was based in fact, colored a bit with supposition, and augmented by my fevered imagination. It was a great tale. I really wish I could remember it now, but I can’t.

Once I finished, they understood that lawyers in America were similar to warlords in Afghanistan, with the exception that they rub out the competition using law and judges instead of the gun. A man clever enough to win almost every office he ran for by eliminating his competition before the vote, is a man the Pashtuns can understand. I told them that Obama would probably win the election and that I have no idea how that will impact our effort in Afghanistan, except that he had promised to add resources to our efforts here. They asked if Obama was African. I resisted the obvious answer of “who knows?” by telling them his father was a black African, his mother was white American, but he identifies himself as African American. I added that most African Americans were born in America to American parents. That confused them so much that we spent the next 30 minutes discussing racial identities. I don’t think they had a clue what I was trying to tell them, but they sure were polite about it.

What followed, I seem to recall, was a long debate about whether Africans were good Muslims. I assume this stems from the Africans they may have seen during the al Qaeda days. I think their conclusion was that the Africans were like the Arabs, and therefore considered the local equivalent of scumbags. They talked amongst themselves for several more minutes, I heard John McCain’s name raised several times, but they did not ask anymore about the pending election… praise be to God. They assured me that they like all Americans, regardless of hue…and that it would be better to see more of them, especially if they took off the helmets and body armor, because that scares the kids and woman-folk. They also complained that the big MRAPS and helicopters scared their cows (already short of water and feed), and that it is causing them to produce even less milk.  I confided to them that big army scares me too, but I don’t think they understood what I was trying to say.

Maliks of Sherzad district

We talked for another 35 minutes about reconstruction efforts, their perception of the American effort, their local needs, and the increase in armed militancy. The elders repeatedly went over the story about giving up poppy cultivation yet not receiving the promised financial aid. They indicated they had plans to grow poppy again if they got enough rain, inshallah. The serious part of our discussion involved their needs, which were simple: they needed a road over which to transport their goods to market, bridges repaired, and irrigation systems restored to their 1970′s condition. They said these improvements would provide security and increased commerce. One of them made a very interesting comment regarding the way the roads were presently, the only thing we can economically transport over them is the poppy. Food for thought…

At the conclusion of the meeting, the senior Maliks and I piled into my SUV and headed to the Gandamak battlefield.

The Last Stand of the 44th Foot

The final stand at Gandamak occurred on the 13th of January 1842. Twenty officers and forty-five British soldiers, most from the 44th Regiment of  Foot, pulled off the road onto a hillock when they found the pass to Jalalabad blocked by Afghan fighters. They probably pulled up on the high ground to take away the mobility advantage of the mounted Afghan fighters. The Afghans closed in and tried to talk the men into surrendering their arms. A sergeant famously replied, “Not bloody likely,” and the fight was on. Six officers cut their way through the attackers and tried to make it to British lines in Jalalabad. Only one, Dr Brydon, made it to safety.

The Gandamak Hill today

Our first stop was the Malik-described “British Prison”, which was up on the side of a pass about a mile from the battlefield. We climbed the steep slope at a vigorous pace, set by the senior Malik. About halfway up, we came to what appeared to be an old foundation with an entrance to a small cave. They said this was a British prison. I can’t imagine how that could be possible, since there were no British forces here when the 44th Foot was cut down…they could have established a garrison years later, but that would be hard for me to determine at this point…plus, why would they shove their prisoners inside a cave located so high up a mountain?  It was a nice brisk walk and I kept up with the senior Malik, which was probably the point to this detour.

Enterance to the “Brit Jail”

Heading down from the Jail – back then this was contested area but the locals were on our side.  Now these men are Taliban and I know they are not happy about that.

After checking out the Jail, we headed to the actual battlefield. We stopped at the end of a finger, which looked exactly like any other finger jutting down from the mountain range above us. It contained building foundations which had been excavated. Apparently, some villagers started digging through the site to look for anything they could sell in Peshawar shortly after the Taliban fell. People poured into their ancestral homes from Pakistan with little money and no work. The same thing happened at the Minaret of Jam until the central government put troops there to protect the site. The elders claimed to have unearthed a Buddha statue, which they figured the British must have pilfered in Kabul. I estimated that there are about 378,431 “ancient one-of-a-kind Buddha statues” for sale in Afghanistan to any westerner dumb enough to think they are genuine.

Back in 1842, the closest British troops were 35 miles away in Jalalabad and there are no reports of the 44th Foot pulling into an existing structure. We were in the right area on the ancient back road which runs to Kabul via the Latabad Pass. My guides were certain this finger was where the battle actually occurred and, as their direct ancestors participated in it, I assume we were on the correct piece of dirt. I would bet that the foundations were from a small British outpost built perhaps to host the Treaty of Gandamak signing in 1879, or for the purpose of recovering the remains of their dead for proper internment.

Site of the final battle

Foundation from an unknown building on Gandamak Hill

The visit concluded with a large lunch. After we had finished and the food was removed, our meeting was officially concluded with a short prayer.

Man I love Kabuli Pilau – and eating with my hands, Mehrab the manager of the Taj is on my right.

I drove back a few hours before sunset and was escorted by a truck full of armed citizens. The escort turned back as soon as I hit the hardtop road and was safely on my way back to Jalalabad. Mehrab was my guide that day and faithful friend to me and my children during my entire time in Nangarhar. He was killed this past summer by the Taliban. Several of the men in this photograph have also been killed battling Taliban. Those who remain in Gandamak today are Taliban. That is how it works in Pashtun lands and I still believe it did not have to end this way.

The 2012 Benghazi Cover-Up Saga is worse than the Watergate debacle. The New York Times leads the parade in its clear efforts to ignore the facts. What agendas were being protected by the Obama Administration that required the creation of a factious protests using a trivial internet film trailer, deflecting attention away from an al Qaeda attack?  Why did those in our government concoct and defend this bogus story for weeks? Why did our Secretary of State and our President tell the grieving father of one of the slain SEAL heroes that they would prosecute the filmmaker of this insignificant film nobody has even watched? Why has no one questioned the impropriety of Vice President Biden asking the father of a slain former SEAL, “Did your son always have balls the size of cue balls?”

There are probably a few primary reasons why the Administration made up this myth and tried to hide behind it. One reason is because they knew major press outlets would provide ample cover. Witness the sycophantic coverage on Benghazi evident in last Sunday’s weekly news programs where every host (except Chris Wallace on Fox) ignored the growing scandal. Another reason might only be surmised, but could very well contain the following key words: “Turkey”, “weapons smuggling”, “Syria”, “Iran demonstrating their complete contempt for Obama by killing one of his ambassadors”, “leading from behind”, and “Obama did not want to risk bad election pr, so let the ‘little people’ be sacrificed while he attends another fundraiser for himself.”

Many of our Washington insiders have blood on their hands too, but are able to duck and weave their way out of responsibility while looting millions of dollars from taxpayers. Who cares if some of the ‘little people’ are collateral damage as a result? Photo from AP

The fact that the CIA, senior military, and the President have all denied any involvement doesn’t surprise me. Our top military leaders have proven themselves to be grossly incompetent. They are concerned more with balancing gender quotas in the infantry and submarine service than appropriately using military power to defend America’s interests abroad. The dismal performance record of our military in both Afghanistan and Iraq is blatant proof of America’s rapid decline on the world stage. Our children are due to inherit a morally and fiscally bankrupt country with a puppet military led by politically correct sycophants. The good news is if we ever have a draft again, our daughters can be drafted and serve in the infantry.

How respected is our government in its attempts to seek justice? Ahmad Abu Khattala, Libyan ringleader of the 9/11 attacks, islamic zealot, and confirmed jihadi, taunted Obama from the coffee shop of a luxury hotel just days after Obama said the United States was hunting him down. Khattala bragged (using an Arabic rhyme) to reporters that Libya’s fledgling national army is a “national chicken”. When asked who should take responsibility for apprehending the perpetrators of the United States Consulate attack, he smirked that weak Libyan government was not in a position to do so. He further accused the leaders of the United States of “playing with the emotions of the American people,” and “using the Consulate attack to gather votes for their elections.”

The United States no longer has the ability to track and down anyone inside the islamic world. This is because the United States does not have any human intelligence capabilities. The problems inherent in this crucial weakness cannot be emphasized enough. For a few years, the United States did possess human intelligence capabilities in Afghanistan, but this network was sabotaged by an embarrassed CIA along with the cooperation of an equally embarrassed New York Times Company. The CIA was not pleased that one of its retired legends was running an operation in Afghanistan that provided more raw human intelligence in 3 months than the CIA had been able to secure in three years.  The New York Times was game to kill the program  headed by Dewey Clarridge because they created the group to gain the release of their ace reporter David Rhodes.  I have been told that group successfully organized the means for escape the Times and their “ace” reporter decided that he had escaped on his own.  I guess the Haqqani’s always leave coils of rope and have their guards sleep soundly all night when they are holding western kidnap victims.  That makes sense to you right?

This is what happens when a government’s thinking is done by cowards. Get a good look at his face; you may not be interesting in Jihad but Jihad is interested in you. What Jihad wants to see is this: dead “infidels”…preferably from a cowardly country that no longer believes in itself or stands up for anything. (Picture from You Tube)

Why did the United States Secretary of Defense claim the military didn’t have “enough information” to launch a Consulate rescue in Benghazi?  However, three former military men a mile away were able to rescue all the living and recover one of the dead on their own. What can be gleaned from this account about the one general officer involved in this Benghazi fiasco who reacted the way Americans should expect their general officers to react.

“The information I heard today was that General Ham as head of Africom received the same e-mails the White House received requesting help/support as the attack was taking place. General Ham immediately had a rapid response unit ready and communicated to the Pentagon that he had a unit ready.

General Ham then received the order to stand down. His response was to screw it, he was going to help anyhow. Within 30 seconds to a minute after making the move to respond, his second in command apprehended General Ham and told him that he was now relieved of his command.”

The story continues that now General Rodiguez would take General Ham’s place as the head of Africom. Leon Panetta, our Secretary of Defense, claimed General Ham told him it was not feasible to attempt a rescue in Benghazi. Leon Panetta believes the American public is stupid, as do the major media outlets who have been complicit in spreading these lies and mistruths.

There is ample proof our military is broken. Our top leaders are morally deficient and grossly incompetent. What we are witnessing is one of the largest cover-ups in the history of America, but because a few thousand elites are banking on getting Obama in office for another four years, this story is lost in a black hole.

Cover-up …. what cover-up? Our “newspaper of record” dictates what is news to the unenlightened masses. Look at this screen grab from the 28th of October. Hat tip to Powerline for the screen grab.

What really happened in Benghazi? Apparently, most of the general public does not care. If one contemplates the issues addressed here, it is clear that Americans live in a country with a state-run media. We are ruled by people with little incentive to represent their constituents.

Here is the only tagline America needs to remember for this election:

When Obama called the SEALS, they got Bin Laden. When the SEALS called Obama, they got nothing.

I had the pleasure of spending this past weekend in Burton, Texas at a place called “Camp For All”. “Camp For All” is a gigantic facility remotely located in the country and designed for profoundly handicapped children and adults. Apparently, the founder developed this concept after his own handicapped child was refused admission at a summer camp. This place must be run by organizational and grant-writing geniuses because the camp is first-rate and there are large plaques of support from many prestigious non-profit organizations. “Camp For All” is impressive.

Rope Course at Camp For All

I attended a weekend retreat called “Expedition Balance”. My virtual best buddy, Kanani, had hooked me up with Carl Salazar, the founder. Carl is a Naval Academy graduate, former Surface Warfare Officer (ship driver), and an advocate for those who suffer from PTSD. Carl’s approach to handling PTSD symptoms in the short-term mirrors the advice I received from my new therapist at the VA: relaxation achieved through yoga and meditation.

The timing of this course, from my perspective, was perfect. I am willing to try anything. Ever since my second meeting with the Exorcist, I’ve felt right as rain. The Exorcist seemed more to me like a very talented, extremely intense, psychiatrist than a Human Shepard. He would look at me and say, “There’s another hook still in you, so we have to go back to “X” and talk it through again…” I did what he suggested and the hook actually did come out.  I have to write a post about my time with him but its really hard to describe; so far I’m not coming up with much that is useful.  Plus I’m working on book writing and don’t want to slow down while the creative fires are burning so hot.

Dogs are always big hits at camps like this because of their desire to give and receive attention. Rex is too rowdy (he’ll get better as he ages) or I would have brought him along too

My VA therapist, who would have also made an excellent Chaplin, has done an outstanding job of outlining the most progressive options on treating PTSD to me. He also explained why he is unable to provide any of these cutting-edge therapies to his patients, for all he has at his disposal are prescription drugs. If I chose to go that route, I would have to wait until January 2013 for the next available psychiatrist appointment.  There are talented medical professionals working inside the VA system but that system is proving inadequate to meet the needs of today’s military veteran.  The VA therapists know what will help their young patients but can’t provide that help because they are inside the system.  It has to be frustrating for them and, no doubt, one of the reasons people like Carl are stepping up to fill a clear gap in the treatment of traumatized young people.

I don’t want or need the pills, but I was certainly game to try yoga and meditation. I spent the afternoon cruising down the back roads of Texas listening to Eckhart Tolle’s book, “A New Earth”, on tape. My new plan is: learn yoga, become enlightened by December 2012, and finish writing a book in time for the summer market. If I achieve these goals, I won’t obsess if my book sells or not since I’ll be enlightened by that time, so in the grand scheme of things, it won’t matter that much. But, having written the book while in a state of enlightenment, it will be a huge international best seller and I’ll be in exactly the right state to handle all the attention because I’ll be enlightened and my ego stashed away for good.  What could possibly go wrong with such a genius plan?

Sunday morning yoga class

Learning yoga went smoothly, as did everything else at “Camp For All”. I slept soundly for the first time in months. Four vets, evenly divided by gender, attended the weekend with me.  In fact, one of the women, a vet from Iraq, was married to one of the male vets. Another TBI/PTSD participant, who had been the victim of an attempted murder, joined us on Saturday. Carl introduced us to four volunteers (from the Houston yoga and meditation community) and they each taught a yoga session or led an after-dinner life skills class such as nutrition or goal setting.

“Camp For All” has a rigid schedule, and because we were sharing the facilities with two other groups, tardiness at the archery course, paint ball range, and rope course was forbidden. If we were scheduled for archery at 2:00 pm, you could bet money that at 2:00 pm there were two college students standing alert at the range to supervise the groups for the next hour. The day goes by quickly when you’re so busy and, if the goal of the weekend was to facilitate a few days of refuge from the daily problems that afflict so many veterans, Expedition Balance certainly accomplished the mission.

None of the veteran participants discussed anything specific about their time at war, or about their struggles at home. I believe the main problem most are facing now is unemployment or under-employment. One of the two men in the group clearly spent significant time in battle. I could see it on his face, and,  he was also a Corpsman, he probably had to repeatedly expose himself to rescue wounded Marines. Learning how to use yoga and meditation to relax would be a very useful skill for this young man, who is obviously carrying a heavy burden, while he searches for stable employment on his way to resuming a productive life.

This is what happens when you try to reach a state of enlightenment while shooting arrows. When you don’t try too hard the arrows find their own way…or something….I have to listen to that book tape again.

Expedition Balance is one of a growing number of organizations that offer holistic PTSD treatment. These organizations provide both structure and training, enabling the big first step to recovery for both veterans and non-veterans who suffer from TBI or PTSD.  I think these organizations are going to be in great demand, for they fill a huge gap in treatment choices. You may not be interested in Jihad but Jihad is interested in you.  We are going to be seeing a steady flow of combat-traumatized veterans for years to come. The vacant gaze that came into that young corpsman eyes when he was not concentrating on something else was haunting.  I have seen it so often before, the look of fear that slips into the quiet places to remind you of what you had to do and witness while overseas.

Our campaign in Afghanistan is a disaster, the Taliban is now stronger in both Pakistan and Afghanistan and their military capability has expanded far past their anemic capacity in 2001 .  Al Qaeda is now stronger and, having taken advantage of a man-caused disaster called “Obama’s foreign policy”; has entrenched itself in Northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The number of young men and woman returning from these places after intense periods of combat is going to increase over the years to come.  I hope I am wrong about that but doubt it, there is going to be a lot more citizens who are going to have to deal with the ghosts that rob them of serenity, ambition, and the simple  joys that are found in each day.

Carl Salazar and nutrition guru Emily Jacobs

Such programs that will be needed should emphasize physical fitness, healthy diet, and positive outlets for stress like yoga and meditation, and, I would add, the power of prayer (I’m biased because it works well for me.) These are the only effective alternatives to the pill or the bottle.

So now I’m integrating yoga to my daily routine and, because Carl generously gave us a bunch of goodies including a high-speed yoga mat, I can now do my yoga outdoors in the bayside fair weather writer’s loft/pelican observation post.

This is living.

Yoga by the bay