Your BAG/World Press Saturday: The Range

The interior areas of Asia are a complete blank to me; history and geography. Afghanistan’s barrenness is a start contrast to where German planners thought they might be using snipers. I have to agree with the planners, it seems more likely one would be disputing (and sniping in) areas where food can grow.
Odd that such a desolate place is targeted so often by expanding powers. Whoever survives in this terrain is, at the very least, hardy. If we choose to ignore what geography tells our eyes you’d think the story of the British experience would impress us. Or the Soviet experience.
Indulging a bit of hyperbole, we’re looking at where modern Empire goes to die.

Germans love wandering through natural settings, and many folk songs praise it. The picture is similar to those found in books about finding God in berg und wald und strom und feld – in mountain and wood and stream and field. But instead of seeking the blessings of God in such a setting, the sniper searches for enemies to shoot and kill.
From Eichendorff’s Der frohe Wandersmann:
Wem Gott will rechte Gunst erweisen,
Den schickt er in die weite Welt;
Dem will er seine Wunder weisen
In Berg und Wald und Strom und Feld.

Home On The Range
Oh, give me a home where the Talliban roam
Where the good and the bad guys play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
As we practise for killing all day
Home, home on the range
Where the rpg’s and the mortars play
Where seldom is heard a peaceful word
And the dead lie silent all day
How often at night where the heavens are bright
With the light of the glittering rockets
Have we stood there amazed and asked as we gazed
If their killing exceeds that of ours
and so on….

I won’t get overly focused on Germans sadly I have to report that:
Canadian Sniper Gets Kill at 2,430 metres – The kill, one of more than 20 unofficially accredited to Canadian snipers during Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan’s Shah-i-Kot Valley, beat the 35-year-old record of 2,500 yards, or 2,250 metres, set by U.S. Marine Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Hathcock in Duc Pho, South Vietnam.