Conversations With a Soldier Part Deux

When I first started talking to my brother, Kris, about his experiences as a soldier in Afghanistan I promised him that I would not blog about it. He said that I could blog if I wished, but I could not make the blog political. So here I am, blogging about Afghanistan in a non-political way, trying to be as objective as possible and probably failing because Kris, my brother, is at war. This is part two of a series of discussions with my brother about his time in Afghanistan, part one can be found here.

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Feeling established with Kristofer from part one, this time around the questions and conversation came much easier. I had just watched Restrepo, a documentary about a group of soldiers in Afghanistan, and that helped me come up with some more questions relevant to his activities on the ground. 

So for this part in the series we jump right in. The first question I directed at my brother was how he and his company manage to communicate with the locals. He told me that all of the communication is done through a translator, and informed me that they don't really speak Arabic, and that there are two different tribal languages in the area he is in.  

I asked him if interaction with the locals is frustrating, knowing that it must be due to the cultural and linguistic barriers. Shortly, he answered "Always...they will only tell you what you want to hear." Going on to explain that effective communication is possible as long as you have an interpreter, and that most of the time they do have one. As a side note I mentioned that I thought communication would be damn near impossible without a interpreter, and humorously he responded saying "Everyone speaks .50 Cal."

I then asked him if he ever has to deal with violent locals, clarifying that I was not referring to the ones with guns, obviously those are the people we are fighting, but that I was referring more so to disorderly people, and I found his answer quite surprising. "Not so much. I honestly can't think of one time..." I expressed my surprise and attempted to broach the subject more, attempting to clarify by asking if everyone was amiable, if not cooperative. Kristofer said, "The biggest thing is... You never really know who you are dealing with. You might be talking to a person that is completely cooperative at the time, but little do you know he shot an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) at you last week."

I went on to ask him how his relationship with his fellow soldiers is, curious about how they interacted and on what level. He responded summarily, stating that "These men and women out here are my brothers and sisters...they are all I have." 

In Restrepo they built an Observation Post, alternating between firefights and digging into the mountain, so I decided to ask my brother if he had ever been a part of building such a thing since he has been over there. H responded, "Funny you should ask...yes my platoon did build a COP (Combat Outpost) from ground zero."

  

To this point Kristofer had been surprisingly revealing about their operations over in Afghanistan, so I decided to push the envelope and asked him what his missions usually consist of. He responded much like I imagined he would saying with hesitation, "Uhhh...I can't give you too much on that one. We do a lot of different things...that is all I can give you for now."

Attempting a more general question, I asked him what his days normally consist of, mentioning observing from mountaintops and patrolling villages. He said "Both. Everything I do...I do it a lot."

Recently I had gotten word from my mother, who talks to Kristofer more than I do, that he would be opting out of coming to Louisiana for his last nine months of service so that he could stay over there and finish out his time. Suffice to say, I was upset about this revelation, and the next few questions revolved around that.

I mentioned what mom had told me about his plans, and simply asked why he would volunteer to stay in Afghanistan rather than coming out to Louisiana to finish out his time. My brother responded, "Kameron...there is nothing that will make you feel more alive than death lingering over you with every step you take."

My Brother, Kristofer

Now, this response didn't surprise me, my brother has always been a bit of an adrenaline junky. Enjoying fights and playing football, dangerous activities have always been in the forefront of his day to day life. So I mentioned that, asking if it was like a high for him. I didn't mean to oversimplify or devalue it, but I couldn't understand. 

"Its more than adrenaline...it's... hard to explain. It's momentarily losing total control and then picking your nuts up off of the ground and, for lack of better words, embracing the chaos...Its like this... I know that the people around me are better off because I am around. I am completely confident (not cocky) that there is nobody that can do my job as well as me. Knowing this, I would stay because I am the best man for the job."

Curious about what would lead him to believe that he is the best man for the job, I asked him about the amount of praise he receives from his superiors. He told me about how he is in the running for solider of the month. This was news to me, I was not aware that the military had any such thing, so I inquired further about that. Kris responded, . I'm also going to a promotion board next month (your leaders have to submit you for both of these things)...so I would say that they trust in all of my abilities."

Curious about my brother's interactions with his superiors, I asked him if they get inspirational speeches a lot or something (in Restrepo there were a surprising amount). He said, "If there are I don't notice them. When we get new soldiers (we have gotten 4 since I have been out here) I try to instill them with fear. Fear will keep you alive. Fear is an emotion that will give men wings. Men have done absolutely incredible things, not because they were brave, but because they were scared shitless." 

To wrap up this series of questions, I decided to ask what his favorite part of being in the Army is. He said "Without question its the camaraderie."

And, finally, I asked you guys to submit questions for me to ask my brother. Sadly, I only got one, and at first I wasn't going to ask him but I decided it would be fair to see if he would like to respond. 

Anonymous asked "Does he feel we should be over there?"

Kristofer wanted to avoid a political discussion, and he wanted me to make it clear that he would only answer a question like this one time. 

He said, "I feel like most Americans suffer from ADD. How can people so easily just discredit the fact that our country was attacked by terrorists? When you where a kid and someone said that your mother was a whore didn't you punch them in the mouth? If not you should have. True Americans are fighters, we are bred that way. We fight for our rights, we fight for our loved ones, we fight for our country, and, hell, we even fight for fun. Our country was founded by people willing to bleed for the freedoms that people now hide behind freedom of press and freedom of speech being two big ones. Now, at this point it is imperative that we fight to reform Afghanistan to prevent further attacks on American soil. Just in case the anyone feels like I didn't answer the question already...yes I feel like it is of utmost importance that we are over here.

...I will never answer a question like that again."

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If any of you guys have a question for my brother, PLEASE feel free to post it in the comments or e-mail me at thecynicalreport@gmail.com and I would love to ask him for you the next time I get a chance, and it may be used in a post like this one.

As always I fully encourage any criticism, advice, suggestions, or general discussion in the comment area.
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Stephen McDow and the Stupidity of the IRS

Stephen McDow

A man by the name of Stephen McDow was arrested after the IRS mistakenly deposited $110,000 into his back account, reports The Huffington Post. The money was a tax return meant for an elderly lady. Stephen was taken to jail with a bail of $110,000 and faces up to four years in prison after spending $60,000 of it on student loans and his home mortgage.

When The Huffington Post linked their article on Facebook, they had included a status that said "Fair?"

Now I really love The Huffington Post, but this was really a stupid question. Of course it is fair.

In this case, he knew the money wasn't his. If you go to the bank, and you have $110,000 that you didn't earn, don't spend it. I can only imagine the temptation one would feel in the case of this man, but with a sum of money that large, someone is looking for it, and they are going to find it. To be honest, this man lucked out that it was a Government mistake and not some criminal mistake, because he would probably have to worry for his life if that was the case. It was just an all around bad decision to spend a dime of that money, there was no way it was going to end well.

I do not think he should spend four years in prison though, because it is important to remember that the IRS did make a mistake here, it doesn't all fall to him. He should have to pay the money back through some sort of payment system, but there is no way this man should lose four years of his life because of the combined stupidity of himself and the IRS. That would not be fair.

We have too many people caught up in our penal system for ridiculous things anyway, let's not add Stephen to the list.

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Birthdays and Black Holes

Scientists recently watched as a passing star was shredded by a black hole, which is significant since black holes are invisible to the naked eye until they are in the process of devouring an energy source, such as a star. That whole news story can be read here, but I want to talk about something it else it got me thinking about.

We are all going to die. At some point every single one of our lives will end due to some condition. Cancer, disease, etc. But what this news article got me thinking about is that all the things we associate with death are things we understand (to an extent).

I can handle death by random illness, or perhaps less commonly a random act of violence. Not that I want to die, dying scares the hell out of me, but I can comprehend incurring a fatal injury or disease. However, the fact that I could die due to some random cosmic act is something I had never explored at any length up to this point in my life. 

Ungodly Radiation Incoming

I know it isn't likely, and this isn't the beginning of me becoming someone who worries about the world ending at any given point, but I find the thought of my death being attributed to a wave of radiation from a star exploding in some distant galaxy to be rather unsettling.

Or perhaps more likely, the idea of my life ending because of a massive solar flare from our own sun raining down an ungodly amount of radiation upon me seems like a total ripoff. 

I would much rather get the cancer or full blown AIDS, at least then you get some sympathy, and maybe some cool or insightful stories.

When I get to the pearly gates of Heaven or the fiery ramparts of Hell I want to be able to have a good death story for my partners in necrosis. That would be much more badass than to be left standing before my maker saying "Oh, I don't know, I was playing some video games and here I am, you tell me."

By the way, it's my birthday, so there's that. 

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Politicians, Please Stop Using the Work Computers for Porn

Lulz Security Logo

Update: As of around 6 o'clock on June 15th The Huffington Post is reporting that Lulz Security hacked into the CIA's website. I think they may actually be doing us a favor, maybe our Nation's vital infrastructure will get it's shit together so we can prevent more serious cyber attacks in the future.

Reading headlines this morning, I stumbled upon a news story that involved our US Federal Government being hacked by a group called Lulz Security (that story can be read here). Now, the attack didn't put any of our information at risk, but it got me thinking. 

I remembered to a few years back when China's Government successfully hacked into the Pentagon (to jog your memory) and I decided to find out how often these kind of hacks into our vital Governmental systems actually take place.

What I found was pretty shocking. All according to the Office of Management and Budget, there are more than one hundred cyber attacks against Federal agencies everyday. In 2009 there were about 30,000 cyber attacks against us, and in 2010 Federal agencies reported 41,776 cyber incidents. That represents a 39% increase in cyber attacks going from '09 to '10. 

The worst part is, most of the attacks came from instances of phishing, also known as filling out that e-mail form for your free trial of Viagra. The fact that the people that run our country are constantly falling for fake forms to fill out and clicking dirty links is frightening to me. These people should have to go through some classes or something on how to protect US interests.

Just knowing that the US Government has the Office of Management and Budget on the case for cyber attacks tells me that we are obviously not prepared to handle an attack, we should have a specialized Office of Cyber Attacks or something, these things are pretty serious. I really don't want a group of Government hired accountants in charge of keeping our information safe, I don't even want them to be the ones keeping track of how often we are attacked.

Two pieces of advice for the US Government. One, helping that Nigerian Prince isn't going to help US foreign relations, and sure as hell isn't going to get us any more oil (hint: he isn't really a Nigerian Prince).

And two, get an external hard drive for all that porn you are downloading.
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Tracy Morgan Does What Comedians Do

Tracy Morgan has been under fire for his most recent tirade about the gay and lesbian community, continuing a history of doing so. This time he is in trouble time for claiming things such as "...gay is a choice...God don't make no mistakes." Tracy also informed a crowd that if his son ever came out to him as gay, Tracy would stab him to death. Clearly comments like these are outrageous and unacceptable, but I have one problem with the public's outcry. 

All of this was said in a comedy club.

Now let me be sure to assure everyone that I do not dislike the gay community in anyway, I have a surprising amount of gay relatives and I think anyone who has a problem with gay rights or any such thing is an extremely bigoted person.

But as long as I have been alive, the comedy stage has been the epitome of free speech. Up there, a comedian can choose to shock a crowd into laughter using highly offensive humor, or he/she can stand there and make jokes. Tracy Morgan has done the former for many years, so this type of thing shouldn't even be news. 

The real problem here is that a bunch of people who know him from the hit comedy TV show "30 Rock" went to see their favorite (and clean) character Tracy Jordan, and what they got was an uncensored and uncut Tracy Morgan.

It's easy to get sucked into the Tracy Morgan hate in all of this, because his comments were despicable and the media does a great job of sensationalizing everything, but it is important to remember that everything he said was within the confines of a comedy club. Tracy Morgan isn't roaming the streets gay bashing, he simply made jokes he normally would have, to an audience that wasn't targeted well for his type of comedy.

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Movie Reflection: Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction is a film directed and co-written by the great Quentin Tarantino, and easily one of the all around best movies I have seen in recent memory.

Pulp Fiction follows the misadventures of LA Mobsters Vincent Vega (John Travolta), Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) and Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) as their stories ingeniously intertwine, and in classic Tarantino fashion, do so out of chronological order.

The first thing I noticed when watching this movie was the incredible dialogue that takes place between the characters, especially between John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. The chemistry these two have on screen, combined with the amazing dialogue written for their characters, set up some of the coolest scenes to ever be in a movie, and the most memorable scene in my personal movie watching history.

(explicit warning)

The scene above is from the first twenty minutes of the movie, and the entertainment value never goes down from there. The fire in Jules we see in the above scene never goes away, and the calm cool collectedness of Vincent becomes a staple of the film. There were a couple of moments where I thought the movie kind of dragged on, and a few scenes I believed we just filler, but the ingeniousness of Quentin Tarantino shines through when it turned out that through two and a half hours worth of movie he only showed me things that mattered to the overall plot. Every single thing comes back around and every scene is important. 

Something else that stuck out to me was the amount of smoking. I don't have a problem with smoking, I don't smoke myself, but I suppose it is really a sign of the times. The amount of smoking in movies back then compared to how often you see it now, it has become much more of a rarity in today's politically correct environment. This really is too bad because this movie would not be the same without the smoking; it adds such a sense of "cool" to the entire film. I've never wanted to smoke a cigarette more than after seeing this piece of cinema.

While almost everything in this movie was fantastic, there were a couple of things that caught my attention that I did not think fit. 

The first thing I disliked quite a bit (spoiler alert) is how John Travolta's character just dies. I understand it was important to the movie that he dies, and in the end his death ties together the rest of the plot. I didn't dislike that he died, I disliked how he died. It was so disingenuous the way they just got rid of him like that. In my opinion Tarantino didn't make it seem important enough.

The second thing that I disliked was how Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) interacted with his boss, Marsellus Wallace. If the audience is supposed to believe that Marsellus is the big boss, we shouldn't have Jules, one of our main characters, who also happens to be an underling to Marsellus, talk to him like Marsellus is somehow beneath him. It was a inconsistency, but in my mind it was a major one, because it removed me from the immersion of the film, even if it was for just a second.

Along with those negatives, I felt like Butch's (Bruce Willis) storyline was kind of thrown in to the mix as an afterthought. It all comes back around, but his storyline just doesn't feel as important to me as Vincent's and Jules' parts in the narrative. 

Overall, I found that Pulp Fiction lived up to the hype. We don't often see movies with an all-star cast like this succeed as well as Pulp Fiction did. I do realize that a lot of the names in this movie were not quite as big then as they are now, but the acting was superb and the stylistic filming and framing of the shots were amazing. All that combined with an extremely well chosen soundtrack and we have what I believe is one of the best, and most influential movies of all time.

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