Kabul Corporate Monk # 8 is Up

By the time you read this, David Grizzle's latest epistle from Afghanistan, Kabul Corporate Monk # 8, should be posted at http://www.etss.edu/GrizzleKCM.shtml.  Here's an excerpt:

Preparation for the Hajj (the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) for 28,000 Afghans brought me back to the Emirates.  My friend Ambassador Clyde Taylor recently remarked at the irony that an Evangelical Christian had gone off to Afghanistan with the United States Government and had spent such a considerable amount of his time helping to insure the smooth execution of an Islamic pilgrimage.  Although he did not say it, the irony is even deeper in that it would probably be illegal for me to do exactly the same thing in the U.S. that is an essential part of my task here.  And before it is over, there will be dozens, maybe hundreds, of American government employees working to pull off the Hajj. 

And we'll do it because it's a national security issue here in a way that can barely even be imagined a religious event could be back in the States.  In 2002, as a result of mishaps in the Hajj involving delayed aircraft, Hajji surrounded the then Minister of Civil Aviation and killed him at the airport.  My objective is to have a Hajj that is so orderly that I can not only go to the airport, but actually take a Hajj flight to Jeddah.  (Because I'm only one of "the people of the book," but not a Muslim, I can't actually go to Mecca or Medina.)

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After a quick brunch at the Berger camp, we moved on further south.  When we got to Shahjoy, another Taliban stronghold, we were joined by six more security vehicles, bringing our total convoy size to 20, plus a helicopter escort that we picked up.  The last additional security truck significantly increased our firepower by adding four RPGs to our artillery. 

Allen, or Australian chopper pilot escort, employed a fascinating diversion tactic.  As we approached a town, he would bring his chopper down fairly low and circle the town.  Our convoy would blast through the town and no one would even see us, because every eye was on the helicopter.  Four times Allen saw something he didn't like up ahead of us.  He would bring the chopper down low over the suspects and the prop wash would blow up so much dust that we were completely obscured as we passed by. 

At the time I thought this was an interesting, but probably excessive diversionary tactic.  Three days after our return, though, I was told that sadly another one of our workers had been killed near Shahjoy; and then we were told what had been withheld from us at the time.  One of the dustings that Allen gave was to a truck load of bad guys waiting for us with their own AKs and grenade launchers.

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