A boom goes off in Afghanistan. Does anyone hear about it?

2015-02-04T13:28:29-05:00

Chances are, if you are not currently in Afghanistan, you didn’t hear about the boom. Before I dive any further into this, I want to clarify that it is not an attack on anyone except maybe American media outlets.

My current assignment has me behind a desk observing every activity in Afghanistan for media engagement. This comes in the form of stories, tweets (yes they use Twitter in Afghanistan), Facebook posts (Kabul Security Now is the best one we have found), or YouTube video stories.

Each day varies regarding the amount of activity but on any given day, there are around 30 different events. IED strikes, direct dire on the border control zone, complex attacks, and the list goes on.

Unfortunately, most people have no idea that anything is still going on in Afghanistan, except for the occasional story about service members coming home.

I see many people criticize that we are still here in Afghanistan. The Afghans should be able to stand on their own by now. The fact is that they do stand on their own in many cases, but it comes at a large cost. They are out day and night, fighting in multiple types of environments. They always come out on top, but they suffer heavy losses. We serve as the “hype man” in the back, making sure they have what they need. Gone are the days of ISAF-led patrols. If service members leave the “wire” now, it is on a movement request between ISAF and IJC or the New Kabul Compound - except for SF, they still do what they do. Outside of that, most will never see what outside the barriers looks like, unless they are flying from base to base.

With the drawdown in the coalition presence, it would make sense that media attention would have tapered off. There’s only one problem with that - we are still over here losing great men and women. Just recently, we lost 2 American service members. I scoured the news, and to my surprise, there were very few articles. It did not garner the attention that I feel it deserved. I am no glory hog, and I know that we join to selflessly serve our country, but I feel that it is not too much to ask to let our country know that this man or woman gave their life for something bigger than themselves. We are over here ensuring that Afghanistan will not become Iraq part 2, and that requires that some of us be put in harm’s way. We all signed the dotted line knowing that.

Before I start to taper off and lose focus, I will bring it back to the main point of this post. The media serves as the middle man between the world and what is happening around it. With technology progressing faster than you can blink, we can access information at an incredible rate. With all the access we have to platforms to share information, what is the harm of informing the world that there is still a war in Afghanistan that people are giving their lives for every day?

Response by SFC Mark Merino made Feb 4 at 2015 1:41 PM

2015-02-04T13:41:43-05:00

For us at home, we know what happens by what we are told. I was on the DNVT with my spouse as SHE told me that I was in a very safe location that *** News reported had been pacified and the enemy had been routed out. Meanwhile, mortars are dropping, ASP's are blowing up left and right, and my helicopters are landing with holes thru and thru. It works both ways. This is why it is so important that our media outlets are reporting accurate, unbiased news instead of creating and sensationalizing news. I fear that our media is more focused on Johnny Depp's upcoming wedding than brave service members being killed to protect the freedoms our country allows. V/R, Uncle Mark

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 4 at 2015 3:50 PM

2015-02-04T15:50:38-05:00

Good command post SSG Christopher Freeman and thanks for sharing. I've had civilian friends ask me not too long ago if we still had Soldiers in Afghanistan. The are usually very surprised when I tell them that we have several thousand still over there right now. Usually the next question they have is "what are they still doing over there?" It always makes me a bit sad and frustrated that the average American has little to no knowledge about what is happening in that country. When my hometown of Whitman MA lost a Soldier last year I expected to hear a lot more about it in the news. The death of MAJ Donahue was a big loss for our close-knit community. There were only a couple of articles I could find online and a 2 minute spot in the local news. I ended up learning the most about it from Facebook posts. It seems like theses days, if we want to know something about Afghanistan, we need to go searching for it ourselves. Again, thanks for sharing.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/09/18/soldier-with-mass-ties-killed-afghanistan/FHH3dAfOZjQMJ6VdhlUjXI/story.html

http://www.patriotledger.com/article/20140917/News/140916376

Soldier with Mass. ties is killed in Afghanistan - The Boston Globe

A soldier with Massachusetts ties was killed in action in Afghanistan Tuesday. Major Michael J. Donahue, 41, a 1990 graduate of Whitman-Hanson Regional High School, was a paratrooper who had been stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., since 2012.

Response by Sgt Packy Flickinger made Feb 4 at 2015 3:50 PM

2015-02-04T15:50:41-05:00

I once heard two women (20's) I work with discuss Johnny Depp's but for 15 minutes. I fear this is as far as the mentality, intelligence and concern goes with the youth of today.

Response by CPT Jack Durish made Feb 4 at 2015 5:21 PM

2015-02-04T17:21:39-05:00

The reality of Afghanistan is no longer part of the Administration's narrative. That war was successfully concluded. All hail the Command in Chief. Sadly, the mainstream media is the audio/visual department of the Administration and will not publish or broadcast anything that does not fit that narrative.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 5 at 2015 11:24 AM

2015-02-05T11:24:43-05:00

This is my greatest fear: People have truly not learned from the war in Vietnam. Our politicians are still guiding our military commanders in how to execute the tasks. The public has grown "war weary". In 2004, I remember the nightly news taking a moment to showcase the pictures of our Fallen. 2-3 years later, they would occasionally say "7 service members killed in an IED explosion today." 2011, they rarely mentioned the wars at all in terms of casualties, and almost never by name. 2014 people didn't even realize that we were still in Afghanistan unless they had a friend or loved one there.

Probably the one solace is that the public has never turned on the veterans. I pray that never happens, as I have seen far too many lives impacted by the sustained actions and I know that many more are hurt far more by the gains made by ISIS now, knowing that these are the same enemies fought in the initial invasions and in the horrible years since.

I also think there can be connections to the Inter-War periods. After WW1, Americans became extremely isolationistic, and as such "pulled away from the world" even though there were still many issues left unresolved with it. As such, it allowed the Nazi regime to come in and commit horrible acts against the Jews. Now we have the same kind of issue...a tired American public and the ISIS threat. ISIS poses a threat not to any specific religion, but to any one particular creed, race, or religion...but rather to anyone that does not endorse radical Islam. That is a very dangerous adversary to ignore....especially since they are very well funded and once they have formally secured their borders, I believe that danger will only continue to grow.
v/r,
CPT Butler

Response by SSG Edward Tilton made Mar 5 at 2018 10:54 PM

2018-03-05T22:54:29-05:00

They have been fighting so long it no longer matters who the enemy is