[dramatization]

It all feels just like training. Like we never left the states. Everything feels... fake. The only real, noticeable change is that we can't just go home when the day's done. The insurgents that are supposedly out there running around tend to keep to themselves, so we're left chasing after ghosts. It causes us to get complacent at times, giving us a false sense of security - why bother keeping our guard up if nothing ever happens?

Occasionally, however, we get a violent shock to reality. Everything becomes real, very quickly, when you see a group of kids on the side of the road, that may or may not have eaten in the last few days, begging for food. The threats show themselves a little more, when we find the aftermath of an IED blast in the street, and especially when they hit the base with mortar and rocket fire.

But then they're gone again. Not to be seen for who knows how long. We all revert back to actors, in a dramatization of war.

Don't get me wrong, we have a purpose here, and good things are being done. We've handed out food to people whose houses were recently wiped out due to landslides; bought telephone poles so the local government could better manage the power cables strewn across the streets of the local towns; and not long from now we'll be training the local Afghan Army and Police forces in Combat Lifesaving, to help them become a more effective fighting force.

But as an Infantryman, it feels like we're not doing what we came for, what we trained for. I should be kicking down doors, and filling bad guys with lead, to the tune of 7.62mm. But as it stands, with an invisible enemy that decides when, where, and even if they will hit us, we aren't able to do much of anything before they start shooting at us first.

I grew up fascinated with World War II, reading as much as I could find on the subject and learning a lot about history as I did. As a kid, I imagined being in a war like that, a conventional war. This "new war" is nothing like that, but it's the nature of the beast here in Afghanistan. The Russians have seen it's face, and now we get our turn. The best we can do is to play out our roles, and hope this drama we call war turns out well.