Feast or Famine

 

Some might call it writers block, I call it lack of subject material.  When I go back and look at the posts I have put up recently, it looks like there is not a lot going on.  The reason for that is, well, there’s not a lot going on…here anyway.  It seems somewhat paradoxical to me, because from March to June, the work was overwhelming, if there was a moments peace we were probably forgetting something, and yet it seemed to slip the media’s mind that there were still people fighting and dying in Afghanistan.

 

Now, I’m finding myself with more down time and a more relaxed rhythm as we settle into our new roles here at BAF, but I’m also finding an increased sense of isolation and I wonder if it’s not self-inflicted.  I see the reports of enemy contact from the field, and it doesn’t seem to phase me but then I see the AP report that 178 Afghan rebels were killed in the heaviest fighting since 2001.  What am I missing here?  Have I become so desensitized to reports of fighting and casualties that the intensity of this conflict has escaped me?  I guess that may be part of it, but then again, the article also states that 29 US troops have been killed during this period.  Well, that “period” stretches back to March, and nearly half of those 29 troops lost their lives in a helicopter crash that had nothing to do with combat.  Yes, there are still brave soldiers and marines beating the bush and combing the mountains in search of the cave-dweller on a daily basis, and yes they are achieving a good deal of success in finding them.  The vast majority of the time things go very badly for the cave-dweller, and I guess it’s those reports that I tend to dismiss.  I am more concerned with the 5 troops that get MEDEVACed  from the field for heat exhaustion than I am with the 76 turban-wearing zealots who got an up close look at Raytheon’s newest version of improved conventional munitions.  I’m more concerned with the Afghan mine clearing technician who was unable to defeat the booby-trap on the anti-tank landmine, than the 56 “suspected insurgents” who are currently finding that in spite of all the reports of abuses, their standard of living increased by about half a millennium once they relocated to a US detention facility.

 

So either I’m a little out of touch with what’s going on around me here, or it’s just a bit of feast or famine with the news cycles.  I’ll consider myself duly warned regarding my inattentiveness but at the same time, I’ll choose to believe the latter.