Surreal Afghanistan boardwalk fading into memory as U.S. troops withdraw

[unhappycamper]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/11/201812/surreal-afghanistan-boardwalk.html



The Kandahar Airfield Boardwalk, for a decade the surreal yet comfortingly familiar heart of the biggest NATO base in Afghanistan, is closing.

Surreal Afghanistan boardwalk fading into memory as U.S. troops withdraw
By Jay Price | McClatchy Foreign Staff
Posted on Wednesday, September 11, 2013

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — There is nothing quite like coming off a patrol, your body-armor-shaped sweat stains still drying and ears ringing from grenades, only to have the hostess at T.G.I. Friday’s tell you to wait a few. Sorry, sergeant, we’ve got to clear a table.

Or hovering over the desert for hours in a throttled-down Apache helicopter on an oh-dark-30 stakeout, disassembling half a dozen Taliban fighters with your chain gun as they plant a roadside bomb, only to get back to base and discover that the Canadian-themed donut shop is selling just coffee because insurgents blew up the latest inbound shipment of donut mix.

What’s a man gotta do to get a maple-glazed in this war?

Soon enough, he won’t be able to. The Kandahar Airfield boardwalk, for a decade the surreal yet comfortingly familiar heart of the biggest NATO base in Afghanistan, is closing down.

[mikeysnot]

1. That's weird

privatization of our wars for profit. Wars without end for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.

[Aristus]

2. I'm reminded of the line from the 1993 "Last Of The Mohicans",

when the young British officer retorts to his general, who has just concluded negotiations for military support from the colonials and the Mohawk: "I thought British policy was 'Make The World England'!"

Well, now they play cricket in places like Bermuda and India.

And now they have KFC and TGIF'S in Afganistan. Bravo. Well done. How long before they have Wal-Marts everywhere, filled with sweatsuit-clad fat people pushing overladen carts?

[WooWooWoo]

3. i've been on that boardwalk going in and out of the country four times

It really is an amazing little thing. Horrible food, though.