re: #275 MandyManners

Yes, the blog has evolved since Charles created it.

I suppose a compromise would be to call him one-eyed.

What’s spring like in Afghanistan?

Right now, quite hot and usually dry. Soon, unbelievably hot and dusty. It’s still beautiful, though. And as frustrating as a lot of things are around here, the people are great—both on and off the base. I work with good folks, and we are here to support good folks. And I’m absolutely a true believer in the mission. The more you know about this place, its history, and our involvement or non-involvement over time, the more important this place seems.
So I don’t have any heartburn over whether this mission benefits the U.S., keeps Americans safe, etc…—it absolutely does, and we would be fools to let it go by the wayside. And despite my habitual distaste for involving the military in squishy things like “nation-building”, the fact is that the State Department can’t do it (because of, among other things, the military component to security which is not acceptable—still a work in progress) and somebody has to. That pretty much means us in the military, and if we mess this up bad enough, it gets much worse than if we had never tried.

Anyway, Spring is nice here. Just hot. :-)