Not Fair (Updated)

So, the last picture I posted was at Morales Frazier. While you, the reader, pictured me there, me, the author, was spending two weeks near the ocean in California. Not the most accurate self reporting on my part.

As fate's repayment, I'm now on my way back to Afghanistan, typing this message at a DFW lounge. Once I figure out how, I'll post a beach pic or two. But for now, back to the impossibly cute Afghan kids and the laughingly shifty Afghan pols.

Morales Frazier

I'm spending a few days out at our Forward Operating Base (FOB), an "austere" combat outpost in the middle of the fight, as opposed to Bagram, a small city of a logistics hub insulated behind several layers of security in a relatively secure valley.

So, here I am, in the fight (figuratively), in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mud and sandbags, but the Internet here is better than Bagram. Is it me, or is that just weird?

There's also a pizza place that charges in euros. Pretty French nurses. Afghan Army soldiers. An Afghan restaurant run by a guy called Jellybean. Co-ed bathrooms. A bar. A french chow-hall that offers single-serving fancy cheese at every meal. (Last night I had a mini-brie and a blue cheese wedge. The french guy next to me snorted "Pasteurized!") WWII this ain't.

The really mind-blowing part is that this is the same base that recently launched a significant offensive in a nearby valley. Before a background of nurses and pizza and Internet and booze, people are still fighting and dying here. I cant think about it too hard, or else it just makes my head spin.