Stop don't stare

And the countdown has begun: 6 days, 7 hours and 43 minutes.
Found in this week's Sgt Grit Newsletter:
Sgt Grit, I found this on www.downrange.tv a forum for shooters and gun owners Thomas B.
The USMC in Afghanistan.....
This provides a little insight into the modern Marine Corps fighting terrorists. This is from a Reconnaissance Marine currently in Afghanistan. He talks like a Marine in the field- and he is worthy of our thoughts and prayers as are all of our military deployed in some God-forsaken place.
It's freezing here. I'm sitting on hard, cold dirt between rocks and shrubs at the base of the Hindu Kush mountains along the Dar 'yoi Pomir River watching a hole that leads to a tunnel that leads to a cave. Stake out, my friend, and no pizza delivery for thousands of miles.
I also glance at the area around my a$s every ten to fifteen seconds to avoid another scorpion sting. I've actually given up battling the chiggers and sand fleas, but them scorpions give a jolt like a cattle prod. Hurts like a b*stard.
The antidote tastes like transmission fluid but God bless the Marine Corps for the five vials of it in my pack.
The one truth the Taliban cannot escape is that, believe it or not, they are human beings, which means they have to eat food and drink water. That requires couriers and that's where an old bounty hunter like me comes in handy. I track the couriers, locate the tunnel entrances and storage facilities, type the info into the handheld, shoot the coordinates up to the satellite link that tells the air commanders where to drop the hardware, we bash some heads for a while, then I track and record the new movement.
It's all about intelligence. We haven't even brought in the snipers yet. These scurrying rats have no idea what they're in for. We are but days away from cutting off supply lines and allowing the eradication to begin.
I dream of Bin Laden waking up to find me standing over him with my boot on his throat as I spit a bloody ear into his face and plunge my nickel-plated Bowie knife through his frontal lobe. But you know me. I'm a romantic. I've said it before and Ill say it again: This country blows, man. It's not even a country. There are no roads, there's no infrastructure, there's no government. This is an inhospitable, rockpit, sh!thole ruled by eleventh century warring tribes. There are no jobs here like we know jobs.
Afghanistan offers two ways for a man to support his family: join the opium trade or join the army. That's it. Those are your options. Oh, I forgot, you can also live in a refugee camp and eat plum-sweetened, crushed beetle paste and squirt mud like a goose with stomach flu if that's your idea of a party. But the smell alone of those 'tent cities of the walking dead' is enough to hurl you into the poppy fields to cheerfully scrape bulbs for eighteen hours a day.
I've been living with these Tajiks and Uzbeks and Turkmen and even a couple of Pushtins for over a month and a half now and this much I can say for sure: These guys, all of em, are Huns. Actual, living Huns. They LIVE to fight. Its what they do. Its ALL they do.
They have no respect for anything, not for their families or for each other or for themselves. They claw at one another as a way of life. They play polo with dead calves and force their five- year-old sons into human cockfights to defend the family honor. Huns, roaming packs of savage, heartless beasts who feed on each others barbarism. Cavemen with AK 47's. Then again, maybe I'm just cranky.
I'm freezing my a$s off on this stupid hill because my lap warmer is running out of juice and I can't recharge it until the sun comes up in a few hours.
Oh yeah! You like to write letters, right? Do me a favor, Bizarre. Write a letter to CNN and tell Wolf and Anderson and that awful, sneering, pompous Aaron Brown to stop calling the Taliban 'smart.' They are not smart. I suggest CNN invest in a dictionary because the word they are looking for is 'cunning.' The Taliban are cunning, like jackals and hyenas and wolverines. They are sneaky and ruthless and, when confronted, cowardly. They are hateful, malevolent parasites who create nothing and destroy everything else. Smart. Pfft. Yeah, they're real smart.
They've spent their entire lives reading only one book (and not a very good one, as books go) and consider hygiene and indoor plumbing to be products of the devil. They're still figuring out how to work a Bic lighter. Talking to a Taliban warrior about improving his quality of life is like trying to teach an ape how to hold a pen; eventually he just gets frustrated and sticks you in the eye with it.
OK, enough. Snuffle will be up soon so I have to get back to my hole. Covering my tracks in the snow takes a lot of practice but I'm good at it. Please, I tell you and my fellow Americans to turn off the TV sets and move on with your lives.
The story line you are getting from CNN and other news agencies is utter bullsh!t and designed not to deliver truth but rather to keep you glued to the screen through the commercials. We've got this one under control. The worst thing you guys can do right now is sit around analyzing what we're doing over here because you have no idea what we're doing and, really, you don't want to know. We are your military and we are doing what you sent us here to do.
You wanna help? Buy Bonds America.
Saucy Jack
Semper Fidelis
ANSWERS to the astronomy quiz:
1. Since 1976 NASA has been landing spacecraft on which of the following planets?Mars NASA's Phoenix Lander just set down on Mars in May 2008. There were a number of prior missions, starting in the 1970s.


2. Which of the following is no longer considered a planet? Pluto In 2006, the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided that Pluto didn't meet all the criteria for a planet. Now there are, officially, eight planets in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.


3. What is considered essential for life on any planet? Liquid water The search for water is a major reason for the current mission to Mars, which is looking for evidence of water and other conditions that could have supported life.


4. What is a blue moon? The second full moon in a calendar month The expression "once in a blue moon" comes from the fact that blue moons are rare.


5. Which telescope is currently orbiting in space? NASA's Hubbell Space Telescope The Hubbell telescope is in orbit around Earth. The Mt. Palomar telescope is near San Diego, California, and the twin Keck telescopes are at the top of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano in Hawaii.


6. A comet is made of which of the following materials? Ice and dust Comets have a head composed of dust and ice. They are often described as "dirty snowballs."


7. What is a constellation? Stars that just look like a pattern from Earth but may have no relationship to one another Constellations are named patterns of stars. Many cultures, including the Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans, named the patterns after animals and objects.


8. The Big Dipper is part of which constellation? Ursa Major (Big Bear) The tip of the Big Dipper's handle forms the Bear's nose! Even though the Big Dipper isn't a constellation, it's one of the most widely recognized configurations in the sky.


9. How many stars are believed to be in a galaxy? Millions, billions, or more stars A galaxy is a big system of stars, gas, dust, and other elements that are gravitationally bound to one another and travel together. It consists of millions, billions, or more stars.


10. Our solar system is in which galaxy? The Milky Way Our galaxy, the Milky Way, consists of about two hundred billion stars. The word galaxy derives from gala, the Greek word for milk.


11. Which constellation includes five stars that form the letter W? Cassiopeia Cassiopeia can be seen in the Northern Hemisphere near the North Star. In Greek mythology, Cassiopeia was Andromeda's mother.


12. Which planet is known as the "evening star"? Venus Venus, while a planet, is brighter than most stars, Sometimes it is visible after sunset. At other times it is visible before sunrise. Then it is called the "morning star."


13. What is a shooting star or falling star? A meteor The bright streak of light created when a piece of rock or metal falls to Earth is called a "meteor" or "shooting star." The light is caused by heat created from air friction.


14. In 1962, who became the first American to orbit Earth? John Glenn In 1962, John Glenn orbited Earth three times. In 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin became the first people ever to walk on the Moon. In 1983, Sally Ride was the first woman to orbit Earth.