In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Guns or gunless
alledan
Member Posts: 19,541
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Everybody here has a gun but me. The deadliest weapon I have is a mosquito coil. To the insect world I'm a potential mass murderer. But in the war world, I'm a noncombatant, which is as it should be. I don't pack heat. I get into enough trouble shooting my mouth off. Journalists here carry no weapons. Everyone else is loaded -- munitions-wise, of course. Like the two guys who just went by sweeping the dust from the Kandahar Airport terminal after yesterday's sand blizzard. They're armed with push brooms and M-16s across their backs. They're actually M-16 A-2s. The public affairs officers carry them, as well. Military personnel must have their guns with them at all times. Everywhere. The shower line for instance. As I clutch my bar of soap and shampoo, the soldiers in front of me sport new M-4s, replacements for the M-16s. They look like M-16s but with a smaller stock and barrel. They also have M-203s -- which are M-16s with grenade launchers slung underneath -- and SAWs, or "squad automatic weapons," the M-249s. The soldiers say that "SAW" isn't just an acronym but also an apt description of what this machine gun can do to the human form. Inside the shower tent, guns wait by the towels. Guns are at the latrines, at chow, in the PX, at prayer. Sunday services rarely see a congregation so heavily armed. Amen and pass the ammunition. Foot soldiersIn the morning, joggers flit by in their shorts and T-shirts, looking like their urban counterparts back home. But those aren't Walkmans they hold in their hands. They're most likely M-9s, the Beretta pistol. This is the ultimate example of a soldier being able to return fire while on the run. I wave as father Paul jogs by. He's a pleasant exception to the rule. He's an unarmed warrior for God and country. It's his assistant jogging beside him, rifle in hand, who keeps the padre covered. I imagine the good Lord is also watching his back. In many states back home, if you lose a gun -- say, in a convenience store holdup -- it's automatic that you go to jail. Here, if you lose a gun, you could end up in stockade. In the hands of professional soldiers, guns don't usually make me nervous. These troops know how to handle them. In the middle of an operation, the safety's off and the adrenalin's high, but they still know how to handle them. Guns in the hands of amateur soldiers or irregulars scare the daylights out of me, particularly in the heat of battle. Amateurs shoot the ground, the air, themselves and their fellow irregulars. I once watched a guerrilla who was so hot to return fire that he didn't wait for his buddy guerrilla to get out of the way. You can imagine the result. Guns are everywhere here. From the front lines around the base to the line to call home. Face it, it's hard to have a war these days without them.
Comments