The Hour Is Late - By Stephen Meehan -http://raptureready.com/soap2/meehan6.html
It is 0'Dark Thirty, and we have just slipped into this undisclosed airbase within the enemy's territory, under the cover of darkness, with our jumbo jet's exterior lights turned off to try to elude the bad guy's detection. This airfield in Afghanistan is a beehive of activity, as is usual, when we fly in to drop off needed hardware and supplies. The early morning hours and the blackness of night makes no difference to the combatants waging the war, nor to those engaged in fighting off their advances.
F-16s go thundering down the runway, with a deafening roar of their engines ripping open the quietness of the still air, while their afterburners cut a swath of bright light through the thick dark of the early morning. Unmanned drones are taking off and landing repeatedly during our three to four hours on the ground, in their attempts to pinpoint the position of the extremists out in the surrounding mountainous terrain.
Helicopters are constantly on the move, coming in and going away from the base, flying personnel and equipment to remote locations. Aerostats are tethered 1500 feet above the airfield, collecting data, using cameras and sensors, to feed information back to the base about the local weather and unusual activity being sensed in the surrounding region. Even the base's anti-rocket and mortar defenses are continuously in a state of readiness to shoot down anything that poses a threat to the base and its inhabitants.
But in spite of all the hardware that is on this base to fight the bad guys, and all the efforts of those involved, all the training that has gone on, all the sorties being flown, and all the money being spent to try to thwart the enemy's advances-I'm left wondering after departing these bases whether or not we are making any difference at all there or even globally to stem the onrushing tide of terror and violence. Are we even making a dent? Are we slowing down the enemy and his encroachments?
FULL ARTICLE AT: http://raptureready.com/soap2/meehan6.html
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