Water in the Desert
My story begins in the Afghani desert about 150 clicks north of Kandahar in a small bunker waiting for the enemy to find my location. Our helicopter was shot down within a minute of parachuting to our forward position and we were 50 kilometers ahead of the nearest infantry division, alone my translator, myself and my senior officer began to dig.
We spent 7 days consecutively building natural barriers by redirecting streams and building small caves, we dug trenches along the road to slow the rate of oncoming traffic, and we built water infrastructure to further insulate our position while providing needed resources in the hot March desert. It was the water infrastructure that began to attract nearby villagers, townspeople within 5 kilometers would visit our 2 bowl shaped reservoirs for a glass of clean filtered water and a chat about the Taliban and Al-Qaida. When the Al-Qaida finally noticed our settlement, we had taken up watch with 10 townspeople and 2 goat herders. The terrorists immediately attacked, initially sending a suicide car bomber to our camp.
2 rounds into a radiator was how we stopped oncoming traffic, if you didn’t stick to the roads, 2 rounds into the radiator, and if you violated our posted signs indicating a 20km speed, 2 more shots were fired. A radiator direct hit never let the car run further than a few hundred feet before the hot sand and rock locked the car in its place.
The reason mainframe is critical to me is because I would not be alive today had it not been for those 10 villagers who were happy to drink our water and chat about local politics. Communication and interaction from those 10 villagers allowed me to anticipate future attacks and to rest, when my aching body needed some time. The 10 villagers are Afghani citizens and poor goat herders, two classes of people US intelligence aren’t technically allowed to befriend. I had never felt closer to a group of strangers in my entire life.
The US government does not allow continued contact with rebel insurgents you helped to inspire using social engineering or HUMINT, the government believes after the war there will be nothing to talk about, nothing to share. This is unmistakably wrong, because in my 2 months of caring for these people, have them care for me, and succeeding together; an unbreakable bond was formed. These people who had nothing and sought nothing, nothing more than a cool glass of clean water, were the greatest heroes of my time. They would risk everything to provide updates on Taliban movements, taught myself and my crew how to identify Al-Qaida and Taliban from one another and even shot a man who was aiming an AK-47 at me.
I would give them everything, but my words were all they wanted, more chances to chat with me and my team, the only thing I couldn’t share with them. Human Intelligence doesn’t build lasting relationships with counter-insurgents, the “Long Necks vs the 3-Horns” of the Afghani war, after fighting with them we leave them to build their own civilization. With mainframe the relationship doesn’t have to end after combat, the US government may be able to see my emails and phone calls but an application that allows secured communication would give me a chance to reconnect with my friends. Without violating an antiquated military clause, designed to allow people to resettle with little reminder of the previous war. The men and women I met would ask my opinions on everything, from music and culture to the type of clothes or shoes to buy and I was happy to give them everything I knew.
In the end it was knowledge and water that brought a few dozen strangers together in the desert, these men and women who were subjected to Al-Qaida terrorist rule their entire lives, fought and outwit their oppressors with little more than knowledge and a desire for freedom. Knowledge and the freedom to share it is the reason Mainframe is critical to future development.
My team and I weren’t out there to secure the road we were ordered to secure, we weren’t out there to fight the Taliban or Al-Qaida, we were there to spread Freedom and Information. The men and women who protected us, needed inspiration in a war-torn nation as to what those words meant, mainframe will be the future medium for that message. Freedom of communication and equality in understanding doesn’t have to end as America walks out the door, it can continue through the internet, through facilitated learning and through Mainframe.
#MainframeforFreedom