Empathy: a mental or affective projection into the feelings or state of mind of another person.

I went on a civil affairs mission today. We visited a local village to see if we could provide some humanitarian assistance. The pictures really speak for themselves. Since I left the village this morning, I've been walking around in a fog. I am overwhelmed by what I saw.

Please try to spend some time with these pictures. Click on them to enlarge them.

Look at these beautiful children. Notice how they hold their arms close because they are so cold. They look like they could be kids just down the street from you, don't they?


No shoes. Her feet are practically blue.

Another little girl with no shoes.

This is the trash dump that is right in the middle of their village. No means to get rid of it.

What a little sweetheart. She kept playing a game with me....she would wait for me to give her a big goofy grin and then she would laugh.

This broke my heart, their livestock feeding on trash.

The kids beg for anything. Even the pen in your pocket is something amazing to them.

It's very cold.

Another sweet little girl.

Sadness.

I am just so dumbfounded by all of this. A good friend told me that I should "get over myself," because most of the world lives this way. That may be true, but it's something altogether different to see it yourself firsthand.

You probably can't grasp this concept fully by just looking at these pictures. I know that I couldn't either before I came here.

You can see a picture of a little girl barefoot and intellectually understand that it's freezing cold, but it is altogether different for me to be three feet away from her and feel the cold too. Then there's the sick feeling I got because I knew that I would soon be back in my warm room, but she'll go back to her mud hut with the collapsed roof. She'll still be cold. And she still won't have shoes tomorrow.

You can see the picture of the trash pile where the little girl plays, and you can feel bad for her. But it's something different for me to be able to smell that stench, and know that it never goes away for her.

There's this overwhelming urge to somehow save all of them. Then there's the terrible human nature to throw up your hands, to give up, to not do anything, because you know you can't save them all.

I don't have any answers. I know we are going to try and help.

A good friend told me that I would come back from Afghanistan as a different person.

I didn't believe it then.....

But I believe it now.

FROM CNN.COM

SCOTT'S NOTE: This article is a perfect follow up to my blog entry from earlier today. I couldn't agree more with it.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Describing a country on the brink, President Bush on Thursday exhorted NATO nations to send additional troops to Afghanistan and allow their soldiers already there to fight in the violent south and under other dangerous circumstances.

"When our commanders on the ground say to our respective countries 'We need additional help,' our NATO countries must provide it," Bush said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute. "As well, allies must lift restrictions on the forces they do provide so NATO commanders have the flexibility they need to defeat the enemy wherever the enemy may make its stand."

Bush said that listening to his request is not only an obligation nations make as part of NATO, but is also crucial to their own security. "The alliance was founded on this principle: an attack on one is an attack on all. That principle holds true whether the attack is on the home soil of a NATO nation or on allied forces deployed on a NATO mission abroad," he said. "By standing together in Afghanistan, NATO forces protect their own people."

The imbalance in Afghanistan has become a sore point among allies.

Troops from Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and the United States have been doing most of the fighting and leaders of those countries have been lobbying the other 22 allied countries to do more. Countries such as Germany, for instance, don't allow their forces to deploy to the heart of the Taliban insurgency in the south and east.

A bloody fight

Fighting in Afghanistan the past year was the bloodiest since the U.S.-led war started in 2001 and toppled the Taliban regime. Commanders anticipate a renewed offensive this spring by Taliban fighters trying to stage a comeback and topple the elected government in Kabul.
Several countries have offered recently to provide additional support to the 35,500-strong NATO force, but it remains to be seen whether coalition commanders will get the troops, equipment and rules of engagement they say they need.

The Pentagon announced Wednesday that about 3,000 soldiers who had been scheduled to go to Iraq would be sent to Afghanistan instead. That puts the U.S. presence there at about 27,000 -- the highest of the war -- with 15,000 serving as part of the NATO-led force and another 12,000 special operations forces and trainers.

The president is asking Congress to provide $11.8 billion over the next two years for operations, military and otherwise, in Afghanistan.

Bush said the need for others nations to step up is great as spring comes, bringing an expected new offensive by the Taliban.

"The snow is going to melt in the Hindu Kush mountains and when it does we can expect fierce fighting to continue," the president said. "The Taliban and al Qaeda are preparing to launch new attacks. Our strategy is not to be on the defense but to go on the offense. This spring there's going to be a new offensive in Afghanistan and it's going to be a NATO offensive. And that's part of our strategy -- relentless in our pressure. We will not give in."

Chairman: Europe must step up

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-Californina, said on Capitol Hill that allies in Europe and the Gulf must step up.

"It is simply unacceptable that NATO commanders are left to beg for troops from countries like Germany, France, Italy, and Spain," he said. "It is an outrage that only troops from the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark and the United Kingdom are deployed to the most hazardous spots. ... No longer should this administration stand passively by while our so-called allies take advantage of American generosity and courage."

Bush expressed concern about an increase in poppy production in Afghanistan, saying Taliban forces use profits from selling the drug to buy weapons to fight the government. "This is a direct threat to a free future for Afghanistan," the president said.

Bush said he made his concerns clear to Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "He's got to do something about it, with our help." The president also said the United States would help Karzai fight corruption in Afghanistan's judicial system. "Afghans too often see their courts run by crooked judges," Bush said.

Bush said the border area of Afghanistan and Pakistan was "wilder than the wild west" of America's pioneering days, and that the United States would work with both countries to defeat terrorists.

"A lot of attention here in the United States is on Iraq," Bush said. "One reason I've come to address you is I want to make sure people's attention also is on Afghanistan."

INTERNATIONAL FRIENDS IN AFGHANISTAN

The Training Assistance Group (TAG) at Camp Alamo is tasked to train the Afghan Army. This is a multinational mission. Here at Camp Alamo, we have French, Canadian, British and Romanian troops performing training missions.
Here's Chris again with a great shot of the landscape below the mountain. Chris I think has now rotated back to Canada. He is a great guy and he's seen a lot of combat here in Afghanistan. Canada is shouldering a lot of the combat action and we should be very grateful for their help.

Here you see some of the Italian special forces playing foozeball. There are no Italians at Camp Alamo, but as I discussed in some of my earlier blog entries, I often went to their base and ate pizza with them. I think they have rotated back to Italy now.

Here you see a British officer with the Ghurkas from Nepal. If you have the time, do a Google search on the Ghurkas. They have a long and distinguished history of fighting in the British army. We have several Ghurkas here at Camp Alamo assisting with the training.

This is an officer from the U.K. I think he is British, but I don't want to offend if he is a Scotsman or something thereabouts. His beret and plume are distinctive and I've never seen it before or since we climbed the Ghar together.

This morning the French hosted a small party with formage (cheese) and baguettes (bread). You can see some of the French officers. Unfortunately, the beer on the table is non alcoholic. It was a bit early for cheese and bread, but it was good nonetheless. I can't bring myself to drink the nonalcoholic beer. It's not very good and it just makes you miss the real thing even more.

One of the French soldiers (Vince) actually went to law school in France but is not a legal officer. His English is pretty good and he translates for the rest of the French officers. Most of them do not speak English.

Vince is from Tours, France. Tours is right outside Chinon, where my wife Allyson was born. Although she is not French (her father was stationed in France with the U.S. Army), she has been to France many times and loves the country and its people.

I still do not have clearance to talk about the trial that concluded yesterday. I can say that we got convictions and that this is good news for a lot of reasons. Hopefully I can give you the rest of the details soon.

WAITING ON A VERDICT

We got a verdict in our case today, but I need to find out from higher authorities as to whether I can release the details.

In the meantime, I want to share some of the interesting photographs that I was able to take during our breaks.

The first shows an old Soviet helicopter that the Afghans were using for some sort of drill. I believe it's called "touch and go" where they practice loading and unloading troops quickly.

Next you see another traditional Afghan meal. I have to say that this is the best Afghan meal I've had yet.

At the top right you see a plate of the ever present "nahn" (bread). At the upper left are various radishes, which are my friend Gary's favorite, as well as other vegetables.

At the center is a bean/broccoli mix. The beans were good, but to quote Newman (of Seinfeld), broccoli is still a "vile weed" no matter where you are in the world.

At bottom left is rice with raisins (not bad) and at bottom right is a bowl of chicken soup. It is customary to swab your soup with your bread.

The next pic shows a "jingle truck" pushing an 18 wheeler stuck in the mud. This was funny to watch. They eventually got the truck out of the mud.

You see "jingle trucks" everwhere. Usually they have ornate hand paintings on them and bells, hence the term "jingle."

This is a better picture of a jingle truck, although this one isn't completely painted as most are.

Today was one of the clearest days I've seen in Afghanistan. Probably because the temperature is warmer and people aren't burning stuff as much to keep warm.

The mountains were absolutely beautiful.

Hopefully I can fill you in on the details of the trial soon. Until then, enjoy the pictures.

SALUTING

Here you can see me, CPT Kawai, LTC Church and MAJ Waldron as we returned from Camp Eggers the other day.

Camp Eggers is an interesting place. Basically, they took a whole city block and put a fence around it. So there's lots of houses and twists and turns inside.

Every time you round a corner, you run into someone. The place is fairly crowded. If you are a first lieutenant like myself, that means you will always be saluting someone or returning their salute unless you run into another lieutenant.

That can get to be quite exhausting, because you are saluting about every thirty seconds. I kind of thought it was funny actually. You almost want to just keep your hand up there at all times because you'll just be bringing it back up there in a few seconds.

Take a look at the picture and the insignias at the center of our chests and on our covers.

It's somewhat hard to tell what these insignias are as you're walking towards someone. For example, the LTC's oak leaf can look a lot like a specialist's rank from a distance. You're supposed to salute within six paces of the officer, but sometimes this can get difficult. You always have to be scanning the uniform of the approaching officer and you can feel the panic rising if you aren't able to quickly discern the rank. The last thing you want to do is not salute someone deserving of the honor or mistakenly salute the wrong rank.

I know all the ranks, but my point is that it's hard to scan them quickly when you're rounding corners and running right into folks.

The other branches make things even more complicated. The navy enlisted have eagles on their uniforms, which from a distance can be mistaken for a colonel's rank. I must admit to getting fooled once which caused me to salute a navy petty officer. He was quite confused as he returned my salute. A second lieutenant and I mistakenly saluted each other also at Camp Eggers (lieutenants don't salute one another) and we both got a good laugh out of it. For some reason, his gold bar looked like a major's oak leaf to me from a distance.

Anyway, this gets even more complicated if a bunch of officers are walking as a group. The four of us above walked around Camp Eggers together a lot. So what happens if a captain is approaching us? I'm supposed to salute him, yet he's saluting the major and the LTC, and CPT Kawai isn't saluting anyone. I think it's sort of funny, but I have a strange sense of humor.

Yes, to you military purists out there, there is a rule that governs this situation but most folks probably don't understand it and I don't feel like explaining it here.

So that was the big adventure last week. This week I am observing an Afghan military trial. The crime took place at my base so I have a lot of interest in the outcome.

I'll let you in on the details next time. It's not pretty. If you've read the Kite Runner (which I highly recommend), you should have a good idea of the crime that is at issue.

HOUSING AT CAMP EGGERS

Here you see the room I shared with LTC Church, MAJ Waldron and CPT Kawai for four days at Camp Eggers.

Let me begin this story by once again acknowledging how very easy I have it compared to the soldiers in the field. After all, I have a roof over my head. I merely make light of my accomodations because they're funny to me, and may be of some interest to you.

Plus, this blog allows me to avoid sending out 100 emails each day.

You will first note that the space is somewhat small for four grown men. You will further note that there is no place to put your stuff, except on the floor.

Finally, you will see that almost all of the stuff, well actually, ALL of the stuff on the floor is mine. You can see my tennis shoes, bag 'o dirty clothes, semi-clean clothes and body armor scattered everywhere. Yep, all mine. I couldn't be satisfied with just hogging the floor, I also had to obnoxiously put my towel on the bookshelf there to dry.

Very considerate of me, yes? What was I thinking, taking up all the space in a room with three superior officers? I wasn't thinking, that's what. How embarrassing.

Anyway, you can also see that the bunks are made of wood. I was mindful enough of my low rank to take the top bunk on the left, and let my boss have the bottom bunk below me. Funny how the allure of the top bunk passes after you exceed the age of ten.

As for the wood construction, let's just say that I was VERY worried that the bed wouldn't take my 225lbs (ok, 230) and that my boss would become an unfortunate "other than combat related" casualty. Thank goodness that was not the case. Nevertheless, it was interesting trying to scale and negotiate this rickety structure in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, which is outside of course.

I am now back at Camp Alamo, trying to settle back in and take care of business here. We have some interesting things coming up this week, and hopefully I can get some good pictures and talk about them in the coming days.

Before I start that, I want to devote one more entry to Camp Eggers so that I can tell you about why I almost resolved to sew my hand to my hat bill. One hint. There are lots of colonels at Camp Eggers.

Until then.

Camp Eggers

I've been at Camp Eggers in downtown Kabul for the past several days, meeting with the other ETT (embedded team trainer) JAGs from around the country.

If I haven't explained it before, the entire 41st Brigade mission is essentially a training/mentoring mission. We each work with various groups within the Afghan National Army (ANA). For instance, a U.S. artilleryman will work with ANA artillerymen, U.S. JAGs with ANA JAGs, etc.

In the picture above, you see (clockwise) MAJ Waldron, MAJ Arntt, LCDR Holifield (Navy), me, LTC Church (my immediate boss), LT Womble (Navy), CPT O'Day, CPT Kawai and LTC Fleming, who is the 41st Bde Staff Judge Advocate (head of all 41st Bde JAGs). Fortunately he's also a fellow southerner from Arkansas. With the exception of the active duty Navy folks, everyone else is from Oregon or Utah.

Being from Oregon or Utah isn't a bad thing, but they just don't understand a southerner's need for BBQ and all things fried.

All of these JAGs are in different parts of Afghanistan performing different mentoring missions. And no, I haven't been here for four years. The date stamp on someone's camera must be off.

This was a productive conference. We met with many of the ANA judges and generals trying to improve the performance of various Afghan court systems. I am working hard to build an entirely new court system at my base, the Kabul Military Training Center (KMTC). I am hopefully going to get all of the equipment I want and hope to have the personnel approved soon. This is a major initiative.

If I am successful in building this new court, I will have met my goal of making a real difference here.

NEEDLES AND VEINS

I know I said that I wouldn't blog for a while. But this one couldn't wait.

During our safety training today, we had a mandatory combat lifesaver course refresher. Although I have not yet had that training, I plan to do that here at Camp Alamo. In the meantime, I learned how to get an IV started.

I know, the irony is palpable. A lawyer administering first aid. It's even more amazing because of my fear of needles. Every time I get stuck, the nurses are afraid that they're going to have to try and catch me before I hit the floor. It's that bad.

I've tried lately to do things lately that are outside my normal comfort zone. Starting my own law practice, skydiving, joining the army, volunteering to go to a war zone, that kind of thing. I've found that's the best way to push past your fears. Just do whatever it is that scares you.

So you can imagine what's going through my head as I'm being asked whether I want to "stick" someone. My stomach turned at the thought, but I am oddly compelled to try it in order to get over my fear.

As an aside, about a year ago I actually applied for and received financial aid from the Army to take an EMT (emergency medical technician) course. But I had to turn it down after I learned it was four hours a night, four days a week for approximately five months. I just didn't have the time.

So back to the story. I just got through watching someone get stuck before me. Trust me, if you're not a professional, it can get ugly. This is where you might want to stop reading if you're eating, and you'll learn why there are no pictures today.

First, you put on your rubber gloves. Then you take your IV bag and uncork it, so to speak. You make sure you've got a good flow going. Then you unpack your needle, or catheter or whatever they call it. It's a nasty looking device. Maybe about an inch and a half long, with a dagger like end.

Your next task is to locate the vein and apply the tourniquet. Then you do the deed. It's supposed to be a short, quick jab into the vein. You have to guide the needle all the way into the vein to make sure that you've got a good flow of blood. Then you pull the needle out and plug the IV tube in.

The interesting part is the time between pulling the needle out and plugging the tube in. There's blood flowing there. All over the person's arm and onto the floor. I guess that doesn't happen when you're in a hospital because they're professionals. But when a lawyer is doing the work there's a bit of a mess. Actually a fairly big mess. So that's why there are no pictures today.

The neat part about this is that I was sticking the instructor. He walked me through the whole thing. That takes guts.

In the end, I was successful. And I have to say that I would rather stick someone than be stuck. I handled it pretty well. Good enough to make me want to take the Combat Lifesaver Course and get certified.

I still think it would be cool to learn to be an EMT.