Another Not So Good Day

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/world/asia/31afghanistan.html

Herat is actually a very cool city to visit.  It has a (rebuilt) citadel reputedly founded by Alexander the Great, a massive Blue Mosque, and a set of enormous minarets, now leaning precariously, the remnants of a vast madrassa complex from centuries ago.  But it also has a minor problem with IEDs, and now this, one of the more brazen insurgent attacks, not as large as the attack last month in Kandahar but still pretty ambitious.  I haven't counted, but my impression is that attacks involving suicide bombers are up this year.

And more flowers

 And a few more photos from near the hooches.

Still More Embassy Flowers

More Embassy Flowers

More Flowers on the Compound

Flowers on the Compound

 The Afghan gardeners do a very nice job of keeping the compound sprinkled with colorful flowers.  Their favorite seems to be roses.  They have several beds of roses in front of and to the side of the chancery itself, as well as a couple of smaller plots near some of the hooches.  They are past their peak this season as the consistently warm weather sets in, but there are still some very pretty blooms.

News of the Day

This was yesterday afternoon's main event - an unfortunately successful suicide attack in one of the northern provinces.  I haven't been to Takhar; we don't have any of our people up there.  But the killing of the police chief is significant.  And the reference to the bomber having worn an Afghan uniform is, again, a very disturbing possibility.  This has been reported of several of the more recent attacks, and it obviously has potentially devastating implications as transition to Afghan security lead approaches.



http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/28/2240422/afghan-suicide-bomber-claims-life.html

You Know You're in the Army When...

 Or at least, you know you're on an army base, when there are no gummy bears, but there are Gummy Army Guys, and the candy is all Patriot's Choice brand. In what I suspect was not an accident but instead representative of the subtle mind-molding always going on here, the Green Guys in this package vastly outnumbered the evil Red Guys.  That said, except for the Green sniper, I like the Red Guys' firepower.  The guy with the bazooka might take out his buddy with friendly fire, but he's certainly going to devastate the Green Guys as well.

Toto Too?

While killing Osama Bin Laden has undoubted symbolic value, you could make a very strong case that it will have little effect on the course of the insurgency - or more accurately, insurgencies - in Afghanistan.  Very, very few of the people blowing things up here are really al Qaeda.  However, if the story in the link below is true:
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/taliban-chief-has-disappeared-in-pakistan-20110524-1f1dt.html
- not that I'm vouching for this news source - that would be a different kettle of fish.  Remove Mullah Omar from the equation, and that will indeed affect the morale and will to fight of many insurgents; it will affect recruiting; it may spur some, especially the insurgents whose families are still in Afghanistan, to seek to reintegrate.  And if you get greater numbers of fighters reintegrating, that increases the chances that higher-level leaders will consider reconciliation and peace talks.  I find equally implausible the claims in the story that Pakistan has no indication that Mullah Omar is in Pakistan and the Taliban assertion that Mullah Omar is in Afghanistan directing military operations.  So we will see.

A Crisis Averted

The only real perk we get to being here are the five short trips out.  I don't make overtime; I don't get any bonuses; I don't get any preferences for bidding on follow-on assignments; I work six and a half day weeks, twelve to fourteen hours a day; and unless I'm traveling around the country, I eat at the same damn cafeteria every day, every meal.  So the trips matter to us.  But after we returned from Greece, we feared we would lose our last trip.  Afghanistan issues a one-year visa.  It requires you to submit your passport six weeks in advance of your departure to come here - so it's pretty much guaranteed that your visa will expire four to six weeks before your scheduled departure from the country.  You have to have a valid visa in order to leave, so that means you have to renew.  But it won't accept a passport for a visa renewal unless the visa has less than 60 days to go.  And they say that the visa processing will take four to six weeks.  However, for the R&R trips, there are various rules as well.  You have to space them out, more or less every seven weeks or so.  You have to be back in Kabul no later than 30 days before your final departure from the country.  And you have to be in the country at least 300 days, or else they make you stay longer, so every day you spend on an R&R extends your stay in Afghanistan.  So when we got back from Greece, we had less than nine weeks left, with one trip remaining.  So we handed our passports back the day we returned in order to get the visa extension.  But it was looking dire.  We had only the window of the first week in June to take our last trip.  We couldn't get flight reservations or hotel until we knew that we had the visa.  And time was running out.

It all came together today, after a bit of hounding.  We are supposed to be able to pick up our passports tomorrow, with their visas.  After they told us there were no flights available, I went on the airlines' web site and found some alternatives.  And about half an hour ago, I just booked our hotel.  So in ten days, we are going to Nice.   That's right - from Afghanistan to the Riviera.  I anticipate that we will observe subtle differences.

Another Restful Night

So yet another duck and cover last night some time after midnight.  Apparently the insurgents have decided that if they can't blow us up, they can at least stop us from getting our beauty sleep. And believe me, there are a fair number of people here who really, really need more beauty sleep. 

There was an attack yesterday in Khost, to the south and along the Pakistan border.  A couple of days before that there was an attack on the military hospital in Kabul.  Both involved suicide bombers, which appears to be an increasingly common tactic.  In the case of the military hospital, it also reportedly involved a stolen Afghan Army uniform.  That's not the first time the insurgency has had access to army or police uniforms, and that's a particularly worrisome development, since the entire strategy here hinges on being able to pass security responsibilities to Afghan forces.

Caryatids

 This was my favorite building in Athens.  It's the Erectheion, just across the grounds from the Parthenon.  I think caryatids are cool, and I've thought that ever since I saw animated ones attack Jason and the Argonauts in a movie back in the 70s.

A Test

 See if you can spot the subtle difference between these two photos.  Hint: No, the caryatids haven't moved.

Greek Statue Details

 These were from the grounds of the old agora, down the hill from the Parthenon.

Greek Theatre, Part 2

 Here are views, first looking down, then looking up from stage level, of the very large theatre just a short distance from the entrance to the Acropolis.

Greek Theater, Part 1

 Some views of the Dionysus theater at the foot of the Acropolis hill.  First is my special reserved seat.  The third is a series of decorative statues that form the backdrop of the stage area.

Peaceful Night

Previous references to the Duck and Cover have been the post bar.  Duck & Cover related events that involve wine are acceptable.  Duck & Cover events that refer to the security procedure after which the bar is named are a pain.  Sure, it's nice not to get blown up.  But the alarm is so very, very loud.  So once again the Duck and Cover alarm went off last night, well after midnight.  It lasted quite a while, for what seemed like close to an hour.  We are not well-rested this morning.

Back to Kandahar

No photos from the trip yesterday to Kandahar.  But some trivia.  It was 48 degrees Celsius, which is something like 119 F.  It was hotter standing on the tarmac waiting for the helicopter.  I saw one Predator (or Reaper; I don't know the difference) taking off when we got into Kandahar.  As our plane was taxiing for takeoff, we passed one that had just landed and was headed to the Predator area.  At the PRT downtown, it was mostly a litany of facility problems, including that the entire toilet system is dysfunctional.  Every single men's urinal is broken.  The underground sewage tank is so full, and the PRT so stretched on capacity, that the waste has to be removed constantly, and there is some seepage upwards.  I was told that it was discovered that they had been removing liquid waste only, while the solid waste - OK, the poop - was settling and gradually hardening.  So by the time they decided to clean out the tank, it had more or less petrified, and literally had to be jackhammered out.  Some places have "poop pools," which are nearly as lovely as they sound.  KPRT has sedimentary poop stone.
"So, what did you do at work today, dear?" 
"Oh, I jackhammered loose a solidified mass of human feces." 
"Be sure to wash your hands before dinner."

Signs and Wonders

I have no idea what this sign means, what it's for, and what this name could possibly hint at.  But I do think it's cool that in Greek the "MP" is how you make the "b" sound, and "NT" is how you make the "D" sound.

The Answer

 One of these is the answer, and it doesn't really matter much what the question is.  As a hint, in the top foto, the third letter, the circle with the line through it, is pronounced like an 'f.'  In the bottom photo, if the photo of mild-mannered protesters isn't enough of a clue, the "p" is an "r" and the three lines following are an "x."

Random Paintings

 At the cave houses where we stayed, each room/cave had a painting outside the door which, I suppose, identified the room in some way.

More Greek Photos

 Back to Kandahar today, so I'm unlikely to see anything like this.  Regarding the first photo, yes, we did have to call the fire department to have them get our kid down off the roof.

The Perils of Social Media

The true story can now be told. 

Trembling

So two more earthquakes two nights ago, right after each other, at 5.9 and 5.8 on the Richter scale, they say.  These were pretty long.  I was in bed; it was a bit after midnight.  You could feel the building sway for over a minute, and the wall vibrated.  I don't think this was the strongest one there's been since we've been here, but because it was long, it seemed bigger.  It was something like 110 miles deep, and the epicenter was 150 miles or so distant from Kabul.  I've lost track, but that's at least seven or eight perceptible earthquakes this year.

Me and My Kid

This is my loving daughter, seconds before she seized the hook and whacked me over the head with it, then tossed my unconscious body into the ocean to feed the sharks.  No, not really.  She just left me on the dock, and I recovered a few hours later.

Don't Jump!

 It's important to discourage your children from doing reckless and dangerous things.  That way, after they do it anyway, you can make clucking noises with your tongue, wag your finger and say, "I told you so."  This is another important parenting technique I bequeath to my kids.

More Views of Santori

 More views of Santorini from the main pedestrian path.

Nikos

At the cave houses where we stayed, the managers were Nikos and his wife Maria.  Here is Nikos with the feminine side of the family.  Jody is wearing her ID around her neck because she is anxious to get back to work.

Santorini's Main Street

 There's actually only one street in Oia, so the adjective is unnecessary.  But anyway, this narrow pedestrian street goes the length of the town.  Views from before and after our fan club got word of our presence.

More Views along the Path from the Cliffs

 In the second photo you will see the famous Santorini windmills in the background.  This was a comparatively not steep section of the path leading to the sea.

A Spiritual Interlude

On one of the paths leading down from the cliffs to the sea, you pass (at a distance) this little church.  It's not exactly abandoned, but it is certainly isolated, and we never saw anyone heading that way during the time we were there.