ABA Journal - Law News Now

Well, I got out to my first PRT to see what life is like outside the wire and had a good time. I went to Tarin Kowt in Oruzgan province. The Dutch have a PRT there and I thought I'd see how they do business. Attached are some pictures of Tarin Kowt and some of the things I saw.

We got to fly in the daytime so I got a good view of the central highlands of Afghanistan both coming and going. All I can say is Wow! If this place were in the States it would be a national park. Not only that, it would have great ski resorts, and great mountain biking trails. The terrain reminds me of Utah.

Desert mountains with little growing on them and extremely sparsely populated, if at all. There are little patches of green here and there where a mountain stream must provide sufficient water to grow something (poppies!). But other than that it was very barren.

But overall I think these people are missing out. They could make a killling as a tourist attraction if they'd get their act together. I also think this country reminds me of Utah. If this place were in the U.S. it would be a national park. These people don't know what they have. It would make a great ski resort or mountain bike resort (like Moab, Utah). I doubt though tourism is going to be starting anytime soon.

We landed on a dirt airstrip which was somewhat unnerving because I kept looking for the concrete to appear outside my window and it never did. Not a problem though; in fact I saw a C-17 take off from the same runway. What a great plane that is so huge and yet can take off and land on a small little strip in the middle of bumfucknowheresville. But regardless of the plane it kicks up a lot of dust to land on that strip. The dust is the first thing you notice. It is extremely fine - like Talcum powder or flour. Your boots sink down several inches into it. Of course it gets all over you and you breathe it in. No wonder the locals keep covered up. They must think we are idiots not to keep covered up.

The PRT is run by the Dutch and they do a great job. Tarin Kowt actually seems like a nice city although I was not able to go out into the town itself and just stayed on the PRT base for my meetings with their commanders. They say inside the city it is actually peaceful. Yet outside there's a lot of fighting going on if you follow the Afghanistan news. This is still a Taliban stronghold. If you notice the picture of the airfield, that is Tarin Kowt behind it and the hills behind that are where a lot of the fighting is happening. The Dutch cleared out the area a while back but didn't have the troops to stay in force so the Taliban simply came back. We are working hard to develop an Afghan Army that can take and hold these areas. The key though is air support.

You can also see in these pictures the helicopters taking off - for a real mission in the northern hills. We didn't see one of them come back. The Apache Attack helicopter was firing its guns to the South of us so I took it's pictures. We wondered if we were under attack, but eventually were told that it was just practicing. Can any of you see what's wrong with the two pictures of me in a firing position?

The other pictures show Afghanistan from the air. You can see some patches of green in the pictures and that is where isolated groups of people somehow eek out a living. There did not seem any roads or even pathways to connect them to anywhere. I'm not sure how the people actually lived - I suppose not very well. The Country's infant mortality rate is 160/1000 or 16%. Life expectancy is 43. I would be dead. There is simply no access to any decent healthcare in these places.

In any event, I had a great visit with the Dutch and some good idea of how they do business. I hope I can share that with the other PRT's I visit soon. BTW, did you know they have unisex bathrooms? Neither did I. . . . but I do now!!!

Sterling

All photos courtesy of Sterling DeRamus.