Fighter jets blanket the Afghanistan sky. Smoke from the Taliban's mortars hangs in the air. As a convoy presses on and the drivers negotiate a turn, a series of IEDs explode. First Lieutenant John Wagner and his brother and junior officer, Peter, are among the casualties. After he discovers Peter's bloody corpse, Lieutenant Wagner rushes into the nearby mountains and takes cover in a ditch. As he clenches his submachine gun, he quickly realizes it is jammed. Lieutenant Wagner is officially immersed in the horrors of war. Wagner is painfully aware of Afghanistan's challenging landscape, the Taliban's way of fighting, and the difficulties of war. As he lies in the mountains in a state of passive lucidity, Wagner's life flashes back to him revealing his coming-of-age journey in small town America where proving his manhood is a daily goal. As he attempts to repair his weapon while reflecting on his life before war, Wagner wonders how he transformed from a history teacher in a tiny community to a soldier trained to kill innocent civilians in a foreign land. In this compelling military tale that demonstrates the futility of war and addresses the issue of conflict resolution, Wagner must face his enemy in a dark cave in the mountains of Afghanistan in order to discover forgiveness and peace.

The Dialogue

Ridding the World of the Scourge of WarsBy Byron Daring

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Byron Daring
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-3129-7

Contents

Chapter 1 Tragic Encounter of a Military Convoy in Afghanistan.....................1Chapter 2 A Brief Biography of Two Enemy Soldiers..................................7Chapter 3 Training for War in Afghanistan..........................................25Chapter 4 Dialogue between Two Enemies.............................................31Chapter 5 Encounter at Dawn........................................................39Chapter 6 Rescue Mission which Saved John's Life...................................43Chapter 7 John's Rehabilitation in the United States...............................49Chapter 8 John Considers a New Political Career....................................63Chapter 9 John's Performance in Congress...........................................67Chapter 10 Outline of a Conflict Resolution Bill...................................71Chapter 11 John Returns to Afghanistan.............................................77

Chapter One

Tragic Encounter of a Military Convoy in Afghanistan

Fighter jets blanket the sky. F-14 Tomcats do the grunt work, pounding the enemy and weakening his resolve. F-15 Eagles add stealthy, tactical support, further disorienting their ragtag, but highly-trained, troops. Smoke from the Taliban's RPG7s and 82mm mortars, as well as the ISAF's Humvees and Bradleys, writhe together in an acrid and poisonous mélange. Dust from all this activity regularly clogs the motors and turbines of the multivariate war machines, impeding swift and efficient progress. It is slow going, and any real and lasting success seems, at best, illusory. Still, the convoy presses on. A jet precedes them, detonating the underground bombs and ordnance in their path. Despite this strategy, as the convoy negotiates a turn a series of IEDs explode and several Humvees are destroyed. First Lieutenant John Wagner and his junior officer brother, Peter, are amongst the casualties. In a phantasmagoria of semiconscious and unconscious stupor, John discerns the fleeting image of Peter regarding him with fraternal concern. Only when he finally regains full consciousness does he discover his brother's bloody corpse. Sensing his shaky equilibrium, he rushes into the nearby mountains and takes cover in a ditch. He clenches his MP5 submachine gun tightly and realizes it is jammed.

"Damn it. Damn it. Damn this place to hell." He suppresses his seething rage in a hiss.

Unbeknownst to John, a Taliban fighter by the name of Abdullah Gul is sheltering in a cave above and behind the ditch he is hiding in.

Left by himself, John is not only aware of the loss of his only sibling, but also the realization that this conflict has become his own personal war. He grew up hearing his father's stories of the Great War, and it had always seemed very real to him and his brother. But the truth was that all that happened a long time ago, and the intervening years had buried it. This war was here and now, and it belonged to Peter and him. Now it only belonged to him.

Poor Peter of the bright, sapphire eyes and dark mane, so like a medieval knight in appearance. John recalled his enthusiasm upon hearing of the new XM 25 rifle. It represented the cutting edge of American technology, a shoulder-fired weapon with a 25 mm load. Each unit cost $35,000 and fired a projectile with a computer chip embedded in it. A button on the side could incrementally add meters to the target range. Anything or anyone near its intended scope would be neutralized.

"This is the great equalizer, Johnny boy. I don't care what rabbit hole the target tries to hide in. They can't scurry fast enough before they get tagged."

In his coltish excitement, John remembered the breathless intensity his kid brother displayed when they played cowboys and Indians as little children. Even when their mother would call them in to supper, Peter seemed to still be lost in the game. It was as if the normal course of mundane life was just too boring for him. He probably would have been happy as a hero in a Sir Walter Scott novel. He would win the day by a combination of peerless skill and superior weaponry. He was just as anachronistic as his appearance.

Wars are no longer won through sophisticated technology. Wars are won in the hearts of the men who fight them. In today's landscape of protracted guerilla skirmishes and campaigns of attrition, there is no room for the military caricatures so popular in the past. This is particularly the case in a country like Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is slightly smaller than Texas. It has arid plains and high mountains because of the abundance of minerals, which according some authors, are "the best bet for beating opium". The country could be transformed into one of the world's mining centers.

The geography of this mountainous and rugged country makes fighting the enemy exceedingly difficult. Air bombs are useless unless they block the entrances to the caves the rebels often use for cover. Low-flying planes are vulnerable to strikes from surface-to-air missiles, mortars, and even machine gun fire. Convoys transit through tortuous, narrow roads that leave them prey to sudden rebel attacks and buried IEDs. This is the very reason that Afghanistan has so successfully resisted invaders even in modern times, when its people have faced advanced weaponry. Small groups of rebels are difficult to find and destroy. In addition, terror also acts as a disincentive. When members of the alliance forces are killed, their decapitated heads are often displayed, with or without their helmets, along the roadside to remind soldiers of the dangers and possible outcomes of their presence as invaders.

Wars against enemies fighting in deserts and flat terrains are relatively easy to prosecute, primarily by the use of fighter jets and drones. Ground forces can then sweep through and dominate a much-weakened resistance. On the other hand, wars against small tribal groups who take cover in familiar mountains and are used to Spartan meals and harsh weather conditions, to which invading armies are unaccustomed, are much more difficult to fight.

Human beings are designed to fight for survival. The Taliban are psychologically prepared to resist hunger, dust storms, extreme hot and cold environments, and, most significantly, fear. According to the Islamic religion, when one dies serving Allah and the faith, he will be generously rewarded in paradise.

It is not the same dynamic to defend your own family and country as it is to fight in a foreign land that does not represent an imminent threat, especially when the putative goals seem unjustified. It is well-nigh impossible to change a people's way of living, thinking, and being through war.

John was painfully aware of Afghanistan's land, the Taliban's way of fighting and the difficulty of changing people through war, even in his weakened state. In a state of passive lucidity, John's life flashed back to him, not so much as a frantic recap, but as a series of home movies.

Chapter Two

A Brief Biography of Two Enemy Soldiers

Fall 1987

It was after school. There was a matting of maple leaves that muffled the boys' numerous footfalls. John did not want to fight, but this was one of the more tiresome rituals of boyhood. Troy Green resented that John had not participated in the stealthy pilfering of candy bars from the school cafeteria. In small-town America, conformity is king. Troy decided...