Here's a reality check which you might want to skip

> if you don't want to know what goes into making

> sausages.

>

> Don't know if its real, but thought I would pass it

> on to my mailing list in a format that is easy

> to forward. Pass it on to those on your list who might

> appreciate a perspective from outside the comfort

> of a warm family room:

>

> Message from a recon Marine in Afghanistan

> >

> > The following was read on the Sully and Scooter

> (Radio KOGO in San Diego)

> >

> Show on Nov. 17:

> >

> Just outside of Ab Gach, in the northwest panhandle

> of Afghanistan between Tajikstan and Pakistan,

> November 11, 2001.

>

> Bizarre, It's (fucking)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 (fucking) 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 a bloody ear 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 Ill 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,

> rockpit shithole 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.

> >

> And let me tell you something else. I've been

> living with these Tajiks and

> >

> Uzbeks and Turkmen and even a couple of

> Pashtuns 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.

> Its what they do. Its 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 efend the family

> honor. Huns, roaming packs of savage, heartless

> beasts who feed on each other's barbarism.

> (Fucking) cavemen with AK 47's. 

> >

> Then again, maybe I'm just cranky. I'm freezing

> my ass off on this stupid (fucking) 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 Judy and  Bernie 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 getting good at it.

>

> Please tell my fellow Americans to turn off their

> TV sets and move on with their lives. 

> >

> The story line you  are getting from CNN is utter

> crap 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 some stocks, America.

> >

> Saucy Jack