I ain't home yet...

But I ain't going back to Afghanistan anytime soon.

I landed in Manas Air Base 9 June 2011, and flew out of Bagram to an undisclosed location in Europe on 11 January 2012.  This was a "short" deployment, but by this time tomorrow I should be well on my way to an undisclosed location in the continental US.

I can't say exactly how the mood is in the Army as a whole, but in my little microcosm of experience the feeling of wasted time marks this deployment.  There are Generals and Politicians who look at reports on Afghan Security Force progress and think that things are looking better.  And from measurable metrics like "does Mohammed have a government issued gun to shoot and truck to ride in?" then things are getting better.

On the ground, it is hard to sell that sort of "progress" to a grunt and expect him to take a bite of that shit sandwich and think it's a shrimp po'boy.  This deployment leaves Afghanistan quite a bit like we found it, and it feels like prisoners finally getting paroled to go back home.  A lot of the talk was "what you gonna do when you get stateside?" from Company B sounded a lot like "what you gonna do on the outside?" from Cell Block B.  Instead of talking about how we made a difference, we talked about how we were barely relevant.

I won't say that I'm demoralized entirely, the mission in Afghanistan could be done right if we were given the freedom to do it right.  The problem lies in that we would have to accept an increase in casualties to increase our effectiveness.  That is politically untenable, even for those who cause leg tingles.  We have definitely "won the hearts and minds" of the Afghans serving in the Security Forces.  I have yet to see any sort of real progress showing that the Afghan Security Forces are winning the hearts and minds of Afghans.

Normal Americans love the military because our relationship has a long history that has (until NDAA 2012) been largely "we don't really do domestic except for disaster relief" and they can get behind what our MISSION really is.  We are a deterrent to large scale conflict directed against the United States.  When it comes right down to it, that is the role of all branches of the military.  Everybody likes that mission, everyone understands that having a big stick can keep a pack of rabid dogs away.

What people really DON'T like is the idea of a squad of grunts patrolling their neighborhood, confiscating private property, and "detaining" those suspected of terrorism.  If that happens we are so far lost that there is no recourse to honest citizens but to oppose tyranny or roll over on their backs and wet themselves for their new totalitarian dictator.  Because it is a very real option to have a well equipped Army and Police Force, and a population that views them as hostile to their way of life, kinda like that dusty old place I just left.