Afghanistan could be a beautiful place. The huge snow-capped mountains surrounding the Forward Operating Base we live on rival some of the most beautiful mountainous places in the world. Now that it's finally defrosted, there are trees and green popping up everywhere. What I don't understand is why that these people think the Taliban is a good idea. Is it a good idea to be illiterate in your own language? One of the NCOs here is teaching some of the Afghan National Army guys fire support, since we are after all an Field Artillery battalion, but is having an interesting time because more than half of the guys are illiterate. When they tried to do the test, they realized that some of them couldn't write either. As in, the ones that could read, couldn't write anyway. Total out of the whole class, I think four of them could actually read and write. I don't know how many were in the class but...
One thing that has been driving me crazy is the dogs here. My girl is staying with my Grandmother at this point and enjoying herself with her new found relatives, Topper and George, two dobermans, Admiral, a diabetic oversized King Charles, and Jasmine, a Welsh Spring Spaniel who is blind, deaf and demented. But this country has a lot of innocent victims. Here on this FOB, it tends to be the dogs. Most are completely harmless. There are puppies here too which have been exterminated like mice, or worse. The medics had to put a whole litter of kittens to sleep. While I understand the need for sanitation and the need to keep the FOB disease-free, most of the puppies that have been gunned down by the Soldiers were actually vaccinated. I don't see the reason why these guys were acting like it was fun to kill dogs. They're by no means vicious. While sitting on the concrete slab that supports my room, a container made into a room for me to live in, one puppy named Samantha (my roommate named them), came up to me and sat next to me. She tried multiple times to kiss me, right on the face. When she finally settled next to me, she was leaning against me, nuzzling her face right on me. I noticed her eyes were running a little more than they should, that her stomach seemed a little puckered, as if she was a typical puppy with puppy worms... Her face is young, brown eyes alert, and feet are big, telling the future of her likely course of growth, in the same direction of her rather large, lanky mother, Nala, whose life ended less than a week ago at the end of a rifle.
As much as I would love to take Sam home, I think of all the dogs that are at home in the States sitting in pounds, likely with no idea what will happen to them. Their lives will end in a gas chamber chances are because that's how many dogs' lives end in the United States when they end up in Animal Control and they aren't either claimed or adopted. This timeline is only about a week! I remember reading somewhere in Georgia that the timeline was a week and then they were off to the gas chamber. People that want to take dogs from here home likely aren't serious about having a dog in general anyway, especially if they don't have a dog at home.
I am from the school of thought that thinks we should take care of the home front first, not quite to the point of isolationism, but... Granted my dog was a gift, there is no way I would ever not adopt if I were to get a cat... I also was considering getting another dog from the SPCA. But if you're going to get a dog, you don't sell it. You don't give it away. A dog or other pet is like a member of your family. What kind of lesson does that teach kids? Life gets hard, so you sell or give away what's on the bottom of the totem pole? And if you do get a dog from a shelter or anywhere else, unless its a show dog or other dog that is carefully and selectively bred, they should be spayed or neutered if for nothing but health reasons. The diseases and cancers it prevents by getting dogs spayed or neutered and not only that, but it makes them less aggressive in the majority of cases because they're not so territorial. I could rant all day about this, so I better stop.
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