Wow! I’m not sure if the letter below is legitimate or fabricated. It sounds like it could be from a real Marine, and so I’m going to publish it just in case. Either way, it gives you a lot to think about…
It’s freezing here. I’m sitting on hard, cold dirt between rocks and shrubs at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains along the Dar ‘yoi Pomir River watching a hole that leads to a tunnel that leads to a cave. Stake out, my friend, and no pizza delivery for thousands of miles.
I also glance at the area around my ass every ten to fifteen seconds to avoid another scorpion sting. I’ve actually given up battling the chiggers and sand fleas, but them scorpions give a jolt like a cattle prod. Hurts like a bastard. The antidote tastes like transmission fluid but God bless the Marine Corps for the five vials of it in my pack.
The one truth the Taliban cannot escape is that, believe it or not, they are human beings, which means they have to eat food and drink water. That requires couriers and that’s where an old bounty hunter like me comes in handy. I track the couriers, locate the tunnel entrances and storage facilities, type the info into the handheld, shoot the coordinates up to the satellite link that tells the air commanders where to drop the hardware, we bash some heads for a while, then I track and record the new movement.
It’s all about intelligence. We haven’t even brought in the snipers yet. These scurrying rats have no idea what they’re in for. We are but days away from cutting off supply lines and allowing the eradication to begin.
I dream of bin Laden waking up to find me standing over him with my boot on his throat as I spit into his face and plunge my nickel plated Bowie knife through his frontal lobe. But you know me. I’m a romantic. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This country blows, man. It’s not even a country. There are no roads, there’s no infrastructure, there’s no government. This is an inhospitable, rock pit shit hole ruled by eleventh century warring tribes. There are no jobs here like we know jobs.
Afghanistan offers two ways for a man to support his family: join the opium trade or join the army. That’s it. Those are your options. Oh, I forgot, you can also live in a refugee camp and eat plum-sweetened, crushed beetle paste and squirt mud like a goose with stomach flu if that’s your idea of a party. But the smell alone of those ‘tent cities of the walking dead’ is enough to hurl you into the poppy fields to cheerfully scrape bulbs for eighteen hours a day.
I’ve been living with these Tajiks and Uzbeks and Turkmen and even a couple of Pushtins for over a month and a half now and this much I can say for sure: These guys, all of ’em, are Huns…actual, living Huns. They LIVE to fight. It’s what they do. It’s ALL they do. They have no respect for anything, not for their families or for each other or for themselves.
They claw at one another as a way of life. They play polo with dead calves and force their five-year-old sons into human cockfights to defend the family honor. Huns, roaming packs of savage, heartless beasts who feed on each other’s barbarism. Cavemen with AK47’s. Then again, maybe I’m just cranky.
I’m freezing my ass off on this stupid hill because my lap warmer is running out of juice and I can’t recharge it until the sun comes up in a few hours.
Oh yeah! You like to write letters, right? Do me a favor, Bizarre. Write a letter to CNN and tell Wolf and Anderson and that awful, sneering, pompous Aaron Brown to stop calling the Taliban ‘smart.’ They are not smart. I suggest CNN invest in a dictionary because the word they are looking for is ‘cunning.’ The Taliban are cunning, like jackals and hyenas and wolverines. They are sneaky and ruthless and, when confronted, cowardly. They are hateful, malevolent parasites who create nothing and destroy everything else. Smart. Pfft. Yeah, they’re real smart.
They’ve spent their entire lives reading only one book(and not a very good one, as books go) and consider hygiene and indoor plumbing to be products of the devil. They’re still figuring out how to work a Bic lighter. Talking to a Taliban warrior about improving his quality of life is like trying to teach an ape how to hold a pen; eventually he just gets frustrated and sticks you in the eye with it.
OK, enough. Snuffle will be up soon so I have to get back to my hole. Covering my tracks in the snow takes a lot of practice but I’m good at it. Please, I tell you and my fellow Americans to turn off the TV sets and move on with your lives.
The story line you are getting from CNN and other news agencies is utter bullshit and designed not to deliver truth but rather to keep you glued to the screen through the commercials. We’ve got this one under control. The worst thing you guys can do right now is sit around analyzing what we’re doing over here because you have no idea what we’re doing and, really, you don’t want to know. We are your military and we are doing what you sent us here to do.
You wanna help? Buy Bonds America.
Saucy Jack
Recon Marine in Afghanistan
Semper Fi
Definitely believe that which you stated. Your favorite justification seemed to be on the net the
easiest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I certainly get irked while people consider worries that they just don’t know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and also defined out the whole thing without having side-effects , people can take a signal. Will likely be back to get more. Thanks
IMHO I think it’s fake. But I could be wrong. Marines are hardcore (bullet sponges,lol)sorry I was in the Navy. But what kills be and is kinda alarming(and I know the Taliban is the enemy so I am NOT speaking about them)is how this guy goes on and on about “savages” and “apes”. And no one but me noticed that huh? And before anyone starts with this foolish “PC” stuff,let me say that one I don’t believe this letter for a second. And and secondly while our “Marine” friend may be fighting for our “freedom” he is coming home to a country that one of the greatest in the world. Those people over there didn’t ask or pray to be poor. It’s not their fault that there are bloodthirsty men (just like here)who want to hijack what little they have. But here in the good ol’ US of A people swear up and down that Obama has “stolen” “their” country,LMAO!! Go to one of these Third World country and you’d be PRAYING for Obama. LMAO!!
the marines stopped using the KABAR and switched to another knife a long time ago.
Snopes = “we have no idea.”
Snopes is untrustworthy on political matters. They flatly claim this story is “False,” but in their own words they admit “we have no idea.” Therefore the only honest assessment for this piece should have been “Undetermined.” As for the associated photos, I’d disregard them as additions by 3rd parties as the original letter was likely text only.
I wanted so badly for this to be real, but I checked Snopes.com and it was judged false, with reasons given. Too bad.
Good point w/ the “Smart Vs. Cunning” statement, but I think this is fake. “Nickel plated Bowie knife”? Most Marines would be carrying a Ka-Bar. If that photo is supposed to be of the writer, it’s absolutely fake. He’s an Airborne Soldier, not a proud wearer of the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor.
The pic and the writer don’t match. Patch on the guy’s sleeve is 82nd Airborne, which last time I checked was Army not Marines.
I agree with the writing though!
The cunning vs smart verbiage is an excellent point.
He writes very eloquently for a soldier, and the fact that he calls himself an old bounty hunter doesn’t make sense, as most soldiers only go that way (and into other security related work) when they finish with the military. So I’ll call this one suspicious, at the very least!
Fake !! Can easily make out that this is one of the trick photos and nothing else.
interesting, Living in Asia as a civilian not stuck in a hostile environment, I would have to agree with the assessment of the U.S. media. Beyond that other than the abject racism and bigotry, I think it sounds about right for a marine doing a job no one in his right mind would choose, we get what we pay for and it fosters resentment with guys like this. they do what the rest of us refuse to consider as a reality. the truth is somewhere between the lines. Americans live in a vacuum. (I know, I’m one)
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NO way to know for sure if this is real, but I have to agree with his assessment of CNN and other “news” sources. It has become totally ridiculous, I can’;t beleive anyone still watches that garbage thinking it’s real journalism. Propaganda – pure and simple. Not sure what upsets me more, the fact that they insult the intelligence of the American people – or that it’s actually working.
sounds pretty real to me
I also served in the USMC (1994-2000). I have to call bullshit on this one.
I don’t know if it’s real either, but I served in Marine Recon and it feels about right. Sounds like something I could have written sitting in my hole in Kuwait.