Now that I’ve been here on the ground for a few weeks I feel like I’m up-to-speed enough to describe what it is that I’m doing here for those of you who’ve been asking yourself, “What on earth is a mother of four doing in Afghanistan 17 years into a war?”
I can honestly tell you before I left I didn’t have a clear understanding of what our military was up to in Afghanistan. I had heard terms like Operation Freedom’s Sentinel and Enduring Freedom and ISAF, but I didn’t know other than hunting down Taliban and avoiding IEDs (improvised explosive devices) what exactly was happening here.
It is so much more. Actually, it is downright incredible what our military is doing, and I only hope that I can fully articulate it here in writing.
In January of 2015 the NATO International Security and Advisory Force, known to those in the military as “ISAF” ended and a new NATO mission called Resolute Support stood up. This new Resolute Support mission brings together 39 nations (28 from NATO) to “train, advise and assist” the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.
Think about it this way. Your little brother is trying out for his junior high basketball team, so you bring in LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant and so forth to train him and support him as he tries to accelerate the typical learning curve and gain strength and stamina to fight for his life for a spot on the team.
What the Afghan National Army has been able to accomplish in just the past three years is mind boggling. They are now leading missions to take down IS-K (a group in northern and eastern Afghanistan that has attempted to affiliate with the larger ISIS) as well as significantly disrupt Taliban revenue streams and fighting to take back rural land that the Taliban had held in the past. In particular it is the Afghan Special Forces referred to here as the “Commandos” that are successfully completing these missions. Just this month alone over 4,000 new commandos will graduate from Afghan National Army Special Operations Command’s School of Excellence.
They are training and working directly with our special operations forces.
Additionally, the Afghan Air Force has stood up and trained hard over the past few year and just within the past three months started completing their first missions successfully using laser-guided bombs.
I say all this to try to set the stage for what we are actually doing on the ground here in this country. I’m going to caveat this though by saying – I don’t get out much. And by that, I mean I’m assigned to the Resolute Support headquarters which is a very small, heavily protected piece of property in the middle of Kabul in what is referred to as New Kabul City.
It is hard to describe this to Americans because it isn’t like anything we are exposed to. We live in a large walled area – with many walls and many strict security processes. We don’t leave this area… really ever.
You might have envisioned me walking down the streets of Kabul shopping from the bread and rug vendors with my gun at my side passing women in burkas, but that is not the case at all. I won’t likely ever actually do that. In reality I have very little exposure to your average Kabul resident. It sometimes strikes me as surreal.
So, I caveat my next paragraph to say this is what I see from the headquarters, others here may have a completely different role and therefore see more “action” and/or other missions.
From my vantage point, our forces are working hard every day to support the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA) by ensuring the military and police forces are fully trained, equipped and prepared to provide security and stability. The 39 nations here have brought with them expertise and force protection and each day our motto is “Train, Advise and Assist.”
