Battlefield Tourist

We ended up leaving for Bagram around 3:00, but not before ten tons of drama. The relationship bewtween myself and Ahmet continues to deteriorate and it was probably for the best that the team split for the next few weeks. Ahmet has decided to pull on me what the bosses in Istanbul say he's been pulling on others. He's more or less gone renegade and is uncontrollable. The crazy part is, is that until recently, I've given him a ton of space. Afterall, he's been here three years and the last thing I want to do is come in a implement a new system. As far as I can see, the system works fine and just needs a little oversight, which is what I provide. I've asked him to do certain stories, asked him for b-roll, asked him for input and there is always an excuse, a reason or whatever that he doesn't feel he should do it.
A great example or three happened the day we left. Two days prior, I told Ahmet that he was in charge of getting the truck that we would need to transport our gear to Bagram. His reply, "No problem." By 11:00 the day we were to leave, he was having a heart attack about getting the truck insisting the Abdullah do it "Abdullah never des anything". Of course, that is the wrong answer because the plan has been worked out two days and Ahmet WILL be geeting the truck. This turns into two seperate 15 minute sessions in which all the laundry comes out. Of course, none of it has origins with Ahmet.
Example #2: Since Umit has not been credentialed, I have to figure out how that will get done and get the packing, etc... done so we can go. The plan was, Ahmet gets the truck and Abdullah goes with Umit to get credentials (Umit needs and English-speaker). So what happens? Ahmet takes it upon himself to take Umit, then complain that he has to get the truck while Abdullah does nothing. I tried like mad to convince Ahmet the he was making decisions that were out of his authority and that, in fact, I am the boss. I got nowhere, so I was forced to raise it up an octive to remind him who the boss was. I hope it doesn't have to happen again.

At Bagram, the games would begin. I had no trouble getting through, but the M.P.s were not so cordial with the gear truck. These reservists from Florida could not have been any more asinine and cocky if they were paid a million dollars. As I sit in my escort truck waiting for them to search the truck, this smart ass PFC comes up to me and says, "We have a problem..." "What's the problem?", I said. "Well, we found two telephones and a knife.. sir (in a real condescending way). So I get out of the truck, and sure enough, the driver has a 3 inch pocket knife and a cell phone. The other phone was Abdullah's. "Listen, we're journal;ists and we can keep our phones. That's how we do our jobs." "That's fine", he said, but the national can't have his..", and so on. At first, they refused to let the driver in at all, then they did. Then they took all of the guy's cassette tapes and threw them away in frnt of him while making more smart ass remarks. "Why would you throw those away.
"General's orders... SIIRR." When I heard that I couldn't contain it, so I chuckled.
"You can take it up with the General, SSSIIRR." "No that's ok... I just think it's funny." If they treat a random American like this, I can only imagine how they treat the Afghans. Whatever. We got inside, I tipped the driver for his lost belongings and he left us to wait an indefinite fate at the hands of the U.S. Air Force.
I've been here before and know how things work. We got here on Friday, hoping to make it by Monday, but soon it was clear we may not be going anywhere. Our flight orders are called "Space A", which means we get anything left over. Not only that, but there are very few flights. This also means that we are in deep trouble considering we have 600 lbs of gear. What we need are some sort of special orders that gives us some sort of pull, because if we are left to the wind, we will never get to Kandahar. So before hitting the sack, I tell Sgt. Holt that if we are forced to drive through Taliban-land to Kandahar, I'd have to talk to the general first.
Apparently someone did because the next day we were given priority orders that should ensure us a plane by Monday. We'll see.
To me, the point is simple: We pulled one of our dishes to go to Kandahar as part of a plan drawn up by the coalition, IHA, the Afghan government, and the United Nations, so in my opinion, this should have already been settled. In fact, I believe our mission is one of the most important in the country, not just for us, but for the coalition and Afghanistan as a country. The fact is, without us, there will only be stories from Kabul. Us moving to Kandahar broadens the exposure of the elections as well as allows a more complete story. Nevermind the fact the IHA will make pretty good money.
So, as it stands, we're still waiting on a flight, but it appears we will get one soon. Great news because I did not want to ride shotgun through SE Afghanistan just a week before elections. That's one risk too many.