[MARINEVET]

I last updated with a SITREP...so.....

Since the last discussion was of SAND...let's talk MUD...!

We've had more rain (and so MUD) here than any of our Terps can remember...the oldest being 28. The good thing is that it DOES keep the DUST down...!

It's warming up and that means the Talibs will be streaming out of the mountains in the next month or so. It stays winter up in the mountains (and for the most part up north in Kabul) thru March. UNLESS we get some more U.S. Trigger Pullers over here (and we recently got a Bn from the 82d AIRBORNE here)...or...the NATO crew really gets out and starts coming up with some success stories, it's gonna get real ugly around here.

I've advised a lot of senior U.S. officials about the situation here. We MAY even see some Marines coming back to The 'Stan...weren't planned to return, but I'm hoping we get a Bn or two. I've told these folks that we need more than a Bn here and a Bn there, but just don't know that we'll see U.S. troops in sufficient numbers. The Brits and Canadians remain the Vanguard down here in the Southern AO...just not enuff of them even tho the Brits are sending another 1500 or so. The other NATO forces MIGHT be good fighters...but...I can't speak to that because they seldom leave the FOBs...AND...the President of one of the countries (won't name them here) who came here on a visit, told one of his nation's commanders that IF he lost one soldier in combat ops, he'd relieve the commander! Now that really makes for an aggressive, Warrior mindset, eh?!?!?!?!? The one thing that nation does do well, however, is EAT...they're always first in line for chow!!!

SO...the next two or three months are going to be quite critical in shaping operations for the coming year.

I'm attaching a photo of two of our Terps (our two senior interpreters) receiving refurbished laptop computers from some folks in the States. I assisted in coordinating the effort thru some former Marines on one of our WAYMOR Inc E-Lists...the folks who work at CISCO made it all happen...two really happy Terps are the result! The one Terp, sent them a ThankYou Email...talking of how much our Team does...how we're more like a FAMILY than anything else...etc. He and the younger folks over here like him are the only true hope Afghanistan has for the future!

Hope this finds you all well...we continue to march over here on the Sands of the Kandahar,