Forward Operating Base Tillman, Afghanistan –  Way out here on the far eastern edge of Paktika province, less than two miles from the Pakistani border, is FOB Tillman.  It’s named after Pat Tillman who gave up a multi-million dollar NFL contract with the Arizona Cardinals to serve his country.

Just after 9/11, he enlisted in the Army with his brother and then trained to become an elite Ranger.  Five years ago this week, he was killed when his patrol was ambushed in this rugged country.  His death was a result of friendly fire, but to those soldiers we have spoken with out here, it does not matter how he died.  He gave up his life serving his country.

Kabul-based Fox News reporter Conor Powell’s and my journey to this remote spot started on Monday at Bagram Air Field, about an hour’s drive from Kabul.  One C-130 flight to Salerno FOB, a Chinook helicopter and an overnight in FOB Orgun-E and then another Chinook flight this morning got us to our final destination.

To be honest, our timing was lucky.  We did not plot out actually being here on this solemn day, the exact day and region where the man so many have called an American hero was killed … and on the base named after him.

While waiting for our flight at Bagram we were killing some time at the USO Pat Tillman Center and a plaque with the date of his KIA caught my attention.  We could not believe the timing.  We did the story right then and there on the 5th year since his death and the USO center named after him.  It was only until we reached Orgun-E that we found out that we were coming to FOB Tillman.

Here’s a link to a story on Pat Tillman aired on the Fox Report:

During our stay over the next few days we will tag along with the 509th Baker Company as we learn the situation along this stretch of the border and how a ‘rubber meets the road’ approach is working by the three involved parties (Afghan security forces, US Army and the Pakistani Army) as they attempt to stamp out the cross border movement and attacks by insurgents.  There’s a lot at stake and has been for some time, but with the major focus by the Obama administration, the political instability in Pakistan and the Afghan Presidential elections around the corner, they ante is now through the roof.

By FNC Reporter Steve Harrigan

7:50pm

Spaghetti and meat sauce, fried haddock, mac and cheese, coffee. There are some  pre-wrapped desserts here, but there is a Dairy Queen so that clearly wins.

Before the hour drive from Kabul to Bagram, I am briefed by private security. The security guard did not know the names of his Afghan guards and he smoked during the brief and his radio functioned poorly. It would be a two vehicle convoy.  He said if his vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb that we should keep going, because, he added with a big smile and a leg swing, “that is the life we choose”.

Along the route Afghan beggars held shovels and extended their hands for money. As the vehicle approached a pothole, they would throw a shovelful of dirt on the pothole and extend a hand for payment. For some stretches, there was a beggar every thirty yards each working the same shtick. As you got further out of Kabul the beggars got smaller, until they were just boys dwarfed by their shovels, one hand opening and closing five fingers at a time for money that never came.

Slim Fagen sat in the backseat passenger side next to me. There was armor and a bag between us. I hadn’t adjusted to the time change and looked out the window with a scowl wondering about getting blown up.

I didn’t talk on rides and didn’t like anybody else to talk. I thought all attention, all energy should be focused on not getting blown up and being prepared to act in case you were blown up.

Slim Fagen had dip and a spit bottle. During the brief when they told us every way we could get blown up along the road I watched him go spit, spit, spit in the bottle. If anybody had an excuse to dip it would be a guy about to travel in a soft shell vehicle on a road that gets IED’d regularly.

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Afghanistan: September & October 2008

It would be easy to say that the war in Afghanistan is simply that a war between good and evil or a matter of faith depending on how you worship.  How does one define victory, there will be no peace accord signed or will we watch two sides try and rebuild there nations as in previous wars?

The cold hard reality is that no one cares about Afghanistan and never will.  Afghans did not directly blow up the twin towers on 911.  So the question they ask all the time is why are there still foreign troops on their soil.  The enemy is there but is not seen.

After nearly a month in Afghanistan, I look back and see nothing positive.  The role of the American soldier cannot be questioned, each and everyone I met was that of caring.  But we did meet soldiers with the look of defeat who openly questioned the effectiveness of the current strategy.  The look in his eyes was the best mirror to the current situation there.  And that reflection is the look of pointlessness.

Hard cold facts are never pleasant and the reality in Afghanistan is that corruption is pandemic. It is in and at every level of society and this cancer feeds on itself and the more money that is poured into Afghanistan every day, lines the pockets of the corrupt, twenty families now effectively control Afghanistan according to a recent British fact finding mission to Afghanistan.

Fact, you want to become a Police Chief, with a profitable narcotics route through your district – going rate is $150,000 and you get the badge, keep paying those above and take without mercy from those below.

Fact, In Southern Afghanistan, being a farmer, from Lashkar Gar and taking your crop and trying to bring your crop to Kandahar, to sell has become pointless.  Police and Bandits set up roadblocks on almost all roads and by paying all the bribes there is no money to be made.  So why grow crops when if you grow Opium you will have the protection of the local Warlord who in turn controls the Authorities.  The farmer can now feed his family and have safety.

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