Brother from another mother

Today, for the first time, we have a guest brother in our discourse. Many of you know our Brother in Afghanistan, JT. We will include discourse with him from time to time.

me (mr. g)

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3:32 PM JT: Just pitched the Inqy a story. I went on a mission that was led by a Drexel glad and Collegeville native

me: nice

they love that local shit

JT: Totally.

How's Rue?

me: great

3:37 PM we were both sick this week, but we're better now

JT: Yay! How's school and Val?

3:39 PM me: pretty good. I'm swamped right now

and still pretty week

3:40 PM I ate three rice cakes in 2 days

sorry 2 cakes, three days

how are you?

Where are you?

What's the deal?

JT: I'm at FOB Airborne in Wardak. Basically the middle of nowhere, surrounded by Talibans.

3:41 PM I've been on a number of missions "outside the wire." These have involved everything from "kinetic activity" (shooting0

)

me: that sounds terrifying

JT: to governance type nationbuilding activity

me: are they any good at that?

3:42 PM That's the shit I'm interested in

JT: Shooting? Yes. Nation-building? I'll let you know.

The trouble is that the Afghans tell us what we want to hear

me: I'm sure they're good at shooting.

it's not surprising they tell us what we want, we have guns

3:43 PM JT: The U.S. has some great plans and very bright people. But the Afghan's situation is incredibly complex and does not lend itself to easy fixes.

This is not germany post WWII

3:44 PM Right now we're arming militia groups to try and bring order to the countryside

me: nope, this is hole in the ass, circa shitting time

JT: The program is in teh mold of what Patreus tried w/ teh Sunnis in Iraq

FUNNY!

LOLZ

3:45 PM me: z?

JT: Sure. LOLZ. All the kids say that now!

me: I'm so uncool

3:46 PM JT: I won't argue that. The kids here don't say that though. They say, "Can I please have something to eat?"

Please?

I'm soooo hungry

Planting IED's makes me hungry

3:47 PM me: like the kids in third world hovels the world over, mostly, they're hungry

JT: Yeah. This place is a lot like the other shitty places I've been. Just with more guns.

3:48 PM Why do I enjoy these places so?

I've always said that this place is just Malawi on steroids.

And opium.

3:49 PM Yo. are the birds gonna sign Boldin?

3:50 PM me: it's not clear whether they'll be willing to pay for him or not

because they're stupid

JT: My thoughts exactly.

3:51 PM I have to go to sleep now. It's 12:25am here! I'm going to interview corrupt officials, er, our loyal allies in the morning.

me: awesome

peace brother

stay safe

3:52 PM JT: Asalam au'lekum