Dear Little JO,
This is a bonus letter for you since we’re actually supposed to be researching our topic for a PSA slide show in Khang’s class. Public service announcement. The captivating sort of stuff you get to do in Twelfth Grade Applied English.
In case you’re dying of curiosity though, my PSA is on Explosive Emergency Situations. I’ve been reading quite a lot about the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and ISIL in Afghanistan since my brother Mark came back. He doesn’t talk about it but there’s a lot online. Since the US withdrawal, all three of these groups are getting involved in infighting and jostling for power. During Mark’s deployment, though, I think it was mostly the Taliban.
So there’s this dog walker who walks his dogs past my bus stop in the morning. He has a skin graft stitched down over a missing eye and a sideways scar from his nose to his ear area. The ear is also missing. It’s a combat injury for sure. He’s about the same age as my brother but I haven’t asked. I mean what if they knew each other over there but hated each other? What if this guy is upset because Mark didn’t get hurt nearly as bad as him? You never know with veterans.
What made me think of this dog-walking veteran after reading your letter is that he attracts comments from people. People see that he isn’t paying attention. That he’s talking to himself or whatever. I’m not saying you do that, but he’s got that aura I was talking about. He’s in that bubble. So people say things to each other about him, for kicks. You can see them laughing at him. I don’t know. It’s not respectful considering his sacrifice but that’s how people are.
From what I can tell the basic difference between suicide bombers and US military personnel is that the suicide bombers would prefer to die and the US soldiers would prefer not to. Now that the US troops are mostly drawn down, the Taliban is focusing on political and civilian targets. You can make yourself a list of Taliban strategies just by reading the news. An example of a Taliban strategy is: Drive a car bomb into a loaded bus. This just happened recently in Kabul.
Another Taliban strategy: Enter an elementary school in Logar and open fire. That’s the province where Mark was deployed, at least at the start. I don’t know where they sent him after the first year.
It’s sort of ironic I’ve been reading about all this insurgency stuff because when we were younger Mark always used to turn the news off. He’d switch Mom’s radio in the kitchen from her news station to Top 40. Adam, he’d say, let’s not be the type of people who believe everything we hear on the news.
None of this will make it into my PSA assignment. I’m just writing it down because you said to write what I’m thinking about. I mean you’re sort of right. People keep asking me about the football team and what my problem is and when I’m coming back. Meanwhile what I’m thinking about is a Taliban strategy: Knock out the streetlights at a specific intersection. When the political motorcade stops there, send three suicide bombers diving under the police trucks.
I’m not saying this is the sort of thing I really want to be thinking about all the time. It just happens to be on my mind. It makes me think football and school and my uncle et cetera aren’t worth worrying about all that much.
Sincerely,
AK
PS: I think your sister and her friend Bronwyn are both in Math with me this year. Bron was in Physics with me last year too. I mean she’s hard to forget with the fact that she always asks the teachers about stuff like their hidden bias and unspoken assumptions.