Friday, July 5, 2013

Month 11 Day 5

Notebook entry
15 reports given, diastole, KIPnosis, anti-terrorism force protection class, used stuff on convoy, escort prayers

Journal entry

In the morning I only listened to my audio book for about half of the time because I was distracted by a conversation that I had with Suzan.  they were talking about KIP schools.  A group of revolutionary inner city schools that are pumping out kids to colleges at the cyclic rate.  the thing that struck me about it was what they called KIPnosis.  They line up kids like they are in the military, make sure that they are holding their three-ring-binders at the same angle, etc.  Everybody from the outside looks at it and thinks it is over-the-top, but for kids from the inner city with broken homes, this type of reseting is what they require to change their outlook, their goals and their behavior.  KIP kids often live at the school and work every day from 0730 to 1700.  They are little kids, and they have already been programmed and this is the type of draconian reprogramming that we need to undertake.  Do we honestly think that we can change the Afghans with the level of interaction that we get with them?  I think it is a bit of a pipe dream.  What's worse.  The guys from Corps (Lt Russel to be specific) came down yesterday and said that we have more interaction with the ANA than anyone else.  

The terp situation got dire this morning.  We only had two terps for a while.  the Doc took Sammy with him up to Leatherneck.  I was going to go work with Qais, but I didn't really have the energy to do it, and I wasn't going to have all that much time, so I sat in my tent for the first time ever and did absolutely nothing.  I stared at the ceiling and thought about my life, my purpose, and what type of social arrangements are acceptable.  

I went to the Anti-Terrorism Force Protection meeting.  That was an epic waste of time.  They are working on stuff for mass casualties on base.   Smith Kearon asked me to go, but I didn't speak once, it was useless for me. 

I went to chow, came back and started work on the next financial management class for the Marines.  I just couldn't stand doing nothing for any more time, nor could I allow myself to slip into the dark place of loneliness, existentialism, and doubt that confounds me every time that I stop. 

I sat down with Qais in the afternoon and went over the same shit on IPB that we have been working on for a month.  He claimed that he had never seen some of the slides before, though we have literally been over them every day for a month.  He did know some of the stuff on the slides.  I worked with him on the difference between the Area of Operations, Area of Influence, and Area of Interest.  He wrote them all down, but was complaining that he was sick when I told him that he would need to brief what he learned to the Americashf.  I spoke to the Americashaf,  he wanted me to talk to the GSU about giving him a container.  I guess Maj Davidson told him that he would need to go speak to the GSU PAO, he refused.  He told me that he spoke to the GSU cmdr and that he had been offered the opportunity to share a tent with the GSU CI.  He had refused 'I'm G2' meaning he's too important. I was disgusted.  He told me 'You're not my friend if you don't go talk to them.'

Went to dinner with Josh.  

At the meeting John Soltz said that they had received used oil, used oil filters, and broken parts on the convoy from Shorabak.   They didn't even bother to take it off the trucks and sent it all straight back.  Third kandak showed up today with an empty fuel tanker looking for fuel 'for the kandak' though they can get it from the Marines at that level, and the Marines did not give us a heads up.  He was probably trying to sell it on his 1.5 hr trip back to Marjeh. The GSU commander said the Bde Commander was worthless and that he was looking for a transfer.  'He is not Soviet trained, the only other guy who works here is the XO' This is true, but its also true that he and the XO are Pashtuns, of course they don't get along with the CO. 

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