Saturday, April 13, 2019

The US Military in Afghanistan

This post is circulating around the internet:
get eod call
reported landmine in local's field
arrive on scene sixteen hour later
local brings us into his house, gestures to a vase on his mantle and shouts at the terp
terp says his story doesn't make sense so he goes through it again with the local
landmine story was bullshit to get us on scene so we'd deal with his actual problem:
local's dead father is haunting his household and cursing his home and land
[tactical pause]
return to truck and relay
basically get told that the ball is in our court, but try to help
ask local what he expected us to do about it
he doesn't know but assumes that we're equipped to handle paranormal phenomena since we have ipods and they have VHS
ask him how attached to his father's ashes he is
"get him out of my house"
fuck it, if we leave now we can still make hot chow
take the urn into an empty section of field, apply a 40 pound cratering charge and calm the absolute shit out of the restless spirit
give the local a mountain dew, some halal jerky, a glow stick and a little US and Afghan flag pin
home in time for midnight chow
And that's how I become a ghostbuster.
at

3 comments:

  1. G. VerlorenApril 13, 2019 at 1:38 PM

    Seems believable enough. Just look at the cargo cult phenomenon.

    Assuming this is true, it's a weird situation to be in, but it was handled in what seems like a surprisingly reasonable manner. A lot of anthropologists talk about the need to combine modern and traditional views in cases such as treating illness among certain local populations, so why shouldn't that same principle apply to keeping peace and order in a community?

    If someone is convinced they're being haunted and it's upending their life, and you can blow up an urn in spectacular fashion as a way to "end" that haunting, is that really that different than blowing up a mine in a field which is upending their life?

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  2. AnonymousApril 13, 2019 at 4:15 PM

    Muslim dead in a urn?....

    Nonsense?

    N13

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  3. JohnApril 14, 2019 at 11:29 AM

    I had the same thought about the urn but it doesn't say the local is Muslim, and there are thousands of adherents to other faiths in Afghanistan.

    I still think it is dubious, but I posted it because it has been so widely circulated it seemed worth discussing.

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