Dispatches from a REDACTED
I was recently brought by Peace Corps to a REDACTED REDACTED somewhere in Central Asia. It was probably more surreal then any other experience I’ve had in country thus far. The main purpose of the location is to ferry troops in and out of a war zone nearby. This means that at any given time over 10,000 soldiers are sitting around, waiting to go home or go to war.
It became clear very quickly that all the PCVs were way way out of place. We were the only ones in civilian clothing, very loud, usually smelly. We also ate like locusts from the 24/7 cafeteria (so much so that at one point we were told by military personnel that sitting for hours in the dining hall was prohibited and that it was not ok to eat 12 lobster tails on steak and lobster night.
The most interesting part of interacting with soldiers on a daily basis was figuring out how they saw us. One guy told me “We think you are a bunch of do-gooders who got yourselves in too deep and now need our help”. Another told me, “We are scared of you all. We assume that you are judging us, thinking we are ‘baby killer’ and stuff like that”. “Actually, we are a lot like you, except we can get killed doing it”. This last remark is fairly accurate. Obamas plan in the nearby war zone has always been to “win the hearts and minds” of the people first, shoot later.
I can’t imagine how difficult that must be for soldiers. A man told me a story about a shepherd who was clearly radioing to the Taliban about the troops location but they couldn’t shoot or even detain the man because he was just a shepherd and the only reason anybody helps the Taliban is that they will kill him and his family otherwise. How do you fight a war without killing people who are helping the enemy? Actually with the recent change in Generals and strategies this may soon change.
We watched a lot of world cup. Mostly in a big mess hall called Shooters. Most days when I walked in it would be packed with soldiers playing first person shooter games set during different glorious wars. I found this strange. Like a gynecologist going home after a long day of work and playing with a sex doll. On one day, however, I walked into the whole place singing along to the song Bodies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO_QntXc-c4 I felt like I was in a bad cliche war movie. Then someone put on Marvin Gaye. That lasted 15 seconds until the entire place started to boo in anger at Marvin’s tone and they shut it off. Then we watched soccer.
I’ve never seen so many people so uninterested in the sport of soccer going so crazy from it. The night the US beat Algeria I almost crapped my pants in excitement. It was a great place to see the US triumph and even I was involved in a few USA chants.
Another noteworthy element: Writing on bathroom walls. People in the different branches of military hate each other. They also clearly hate gay people. Usually they combine their hate and say something clever like: “fuck you marine faggots”, “Army sucks cock” or drawing a tiny dick and then writing whose dick it is. Some could have used a proofread. Like Pete from Brooklyn who wrote ”Pete from Brooklyn, Born and Bread!” Somebody wrote something misspelled and then below that person’s comment was somebody making fun of him who wrote ” Faggot Marines can’t even spell right”. Other bathroom wall posts: “I’m smart because I write on walls” the below that “I’m smart because I’m ironic”. Also, “God is our savior” and below that “God is dead”.
Thats about all I can remember at the moment. I gained a lot of respect for what those people do. I was humbled by their ability to do their jobs with no questions asked while simultaneously being further repulsed by war and what it takes to fight one.
On our way off the grounds one day for a day trip into the city one of the top dogs in charge asked a group of us about the peace corps and if we thought pacifism worked. Nobody answered because the question was silly. “Because pacifism doesn’t always work (of course it doesn’t) and not to offend anybody but its a fact that our country was founded on Christian values (of course it wasn’t) and its a fact that Moses smote the Israelites by word of God (wow how did we get here?) and sometimes evil doers can’t be talked down and you have to kill them and that’s why we can’t all be pacifists (we never said we were pacifists)”. I just started to laugh while my jewish friend quietly asked nobody “what the fuck?”
