Agent 91 Reports from Kabul

Our man Niner-One just sent me his first missive from Kipling country.

Greetings from ISAF HQ,

After a month here at ISAF, I have settled into my job. Life at ISAF HQ is pretty good. I work in the CJ9 section here at (Civil-Military affairs, CIVMIL for short). I am in the PRT section, working with RC-East (82nd AIRBORNE). My job is to keep the PRTs up to speed on what is going on at HQ and to go out and visit them periodically in order to get a boots on the ground look at how things are going there.

The Peace Jirga is going on now, so a lot of attention from ISAF is focused on that. The sooner the Afghans and Pakistanis decide that they want peace to break out, the sooner it will. But, there are a whole lot of people here who seem to be ready to kill each other for the foreseeable future.

Having a ship driver on a multi-national (37 countries in ISAF) staff hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean is certainly a new experience. I have zero CIVMIL background, but learned a lot fast. It is actually very interesting work, especially the interface with the non-military organizations like the UN, EC, and the NGOs. People talk about a clash of cultures between the branches of the armed forces. I challenge them to sit in meeting with the UN, European commission and OXFAM for an hour and a half.

I will try to send more frequent updates. For now, that’s it.

Agent 91 out.

Re the NGOs, I was in Somalia twice, 93 and 94, so I feel your pain. Keep us posted on the goings-on, and keep your head on a swivel outside the wire!