Kapisa

Kapisa Province. کاپيسا

CSM Bones and I would travel there - particularly to the capital, Mahmud-i-Raqi. One learned three things about the province right away - the Tagab was a smuggling route (drugs, guns, anything), it was a very small province (the smallest in Afghanistan) and the governor was a venal, thieving, and ineffectual bum.

Al-Biruny University seen center and left. On the right edge is the ruins of a once very large textile plant.

(Photo by ... me)

It's still small. The Tagab is still dangerous. The Governor was replaced with a better man.

H.E Abdul Sattar Murad, Kapisa Governor

I was not happy to see that someone had fired at the PRT working there - the response might have caused a bunch of civilian casualties. The M.O. of the attack fits the bad guys that worked this area when I was there. But it also fits the smugglers M.O. We had PRT personnel driving up the Tagab get shot at by people who thought they were going to come and raid their poppy fields. The Tagab wasn't much of a producer, but during a drought year - you could fly over in a Blackhawk and see poppy patches that were normally hidden behind mud walls.

Somebody bad shot at our people, and when they responded, the innocents that the bad guy(s) were hiding behind got hurt. I can only hope that we can make good for the families of the hurt and killed - and find out what happened to the bad guy(s).