A bridge over troubled water

The highlight of last week had to have been my trip to RC West and the opening of the Bala Murghrab Bridge. I'll begin by saying this bridge is in an extremely dangerous area that's mostly Taliban controlled. Forty-eight hours before we arrived, the Taliban killed 17 Afghan soldiers about a mile away. But orders are orders and mine were to take a team to document the ribbon cutting. For three days prior I got little sleep out of concern... but all those concerns vanished when I got on the plane and saw a VIP who was traveling with us.

At the last minute, Gen. David McKiernan decided he wanted to go along. Gen. McKiernan is the top military boss in Afghanistan, the commander for all US and International forces. If you don't understand his importance, Gen. McKiernan is to Afghanistan as Gen. David Petraeus was to Iraq. If this were World War II, he'd be General Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander in a theater of operations.

I sat no more than 10-feet from him and his very presence told me all was going to be fine. That's because everywhere we went, there were three attack helicopters constantly circling above and a very well armed security detail surrounding us on the ground.

Before we traveled to the bridge, the general attended a Shura at a military outpost near Bala Murghrab. A Shura is a meeting of tribal elders similar to a city council meeting. While he was in there, I checked out the FOB (forward operating base). If you ever wondered what the Alamo looked like back in 1836, this is it; mud walls, buildings with no roofs, soldiers who haven't showered in days. These are the guys that are fighting the war, not bums like me who have a cushy life back at the headquarters.

After the Shura, we convoyed to the bridge, cut the ribbon and flew home. No problems. Part of that flight home was aboard a Chinook helicopter. They kept the back open for the rear gunner which gave us a great view of this beautiful country. The whole 45-minute flight we were never more than 200-feet above the ground. Weaving through canyons and over one small village after another, it was the highlight of the day. The terrain here is awesome, like something I've never seen before. It's mostly untouched as if GOD just created it yesterday. Which isn't to far off from the truth for Afghan people. As I've said on this blog before, to see Afghanistan today is to live in a Chapter of the Bible. According to the Afghan calendar, this is the year 1327.