afghanistan2010: The Pursuit of Meaning, March 14, 2010

Sarah and Tiffany…Bagram Passenger Terminal. 27 Feb 2010

What I am doing right now must be important…after all, I am exchanging a day of my life for it.

To support our nation’s war fighters in a noble cause is why we all came here, but it has to be more than that to be able to keep doing the things we are doing. In this environment, it seems you must personalize your reason for being here--if you do, you will succeed and make a difference. If you don’t, you become bitter and mad at the world. In the short time that I’ve been deployed to the United States Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A), in the heart of Kabul, and I’ve seen both kinds already.

I’m attaching a picture of two women that I met at the Bagram Passenger Terminal. The older one’s name is Sarah, and she immigrated to the United States from Afghanistan in 1980, right after the Russian invasion. She was 24, with 4 children under 4 and she got the courage to leave…without her husband. She had not been back since, but now she is an interpreter for the US and was on her way to her birth place near Kandahar. She said it is time for her to give back to her country, by helping the Coalition make this a better place, and restore it what she knew prior to 1980. The younger woman, Tiffany, is 21 and said she left for basic training the day after high school graduation. She is ready to get out, so she can settle down and raise children, and she talked of all of the adventures that she has had in the military. The three of us talked about many things, but especially the plight of women in Afghanistan. The women here had full rights, just like we Americans do, but they have had them taken away by the Taliban. I couldn’t imagine a world where Tiffany couldn’t travel the world, and then choose to stay home, or where Sarah couldn’t use her time, energy and talent to make the world a better place. These two women epitomize all that it means to be free.

It happened in Afghanistan. It can happen anywhere. It can happen to us. Just the thought of it makes me mad. Not mad for my own sake, but for my niece’s sake, who are young and have such exciting lives ahead of them. It makes me want to do something. So, here I am…I am doing something.

The Taliban, Al Qaeda, et al. have declared war on the Infidel, and we are the Infidel. They will not stop until the Infidel is dead, and the world is just like they are. Do I think they will succeed? No, but I’m not going to just stand there and let it happen, either. I’ll do my part…this is what brings meaning to my deployment for me.

Victor Frenkl, a Nazi concentration camp survivor, wrote a book called Man’s Search for Meaning. He states that every individual must pursue meaning, rather than success or happiness. He says that if you find or are actively searching for meaning (your reason or purpose for being), you can do anything. You can even survive a concentration camp--he postulates that no one should have survived. (This is how I know that USFOR-A won’t do me in).

Frenkl also smartly postulates that happiness and success are by products of living the right kind of life. This, too is proved at USFOR-A. We are working our tails off, but we are having fun. I got a chance to go to a nearby base for some training. Attached are some photos…oh, the things I’ve done and the people I’ve met!

Our Ride

Highly Defensible!

Awesome Engineering! We saw this all over the place.

The King lived here in the 1920s, until he was deposed because he was too progressive…he didn’t cover up his wife. Don’t know what happened to it after that, but the Russians used it as HQ throughout their occupation. Then, the Taliban destroyed it in civil war.