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#382 – In Harm’s Way, or The Full Tilt Poker Guide to Afghanistan
Somewhere in Afghanistan, a young Marine named Colin is part of a top-secret operation. His unit, location, and mission are classified information to which I’m not privy. All Colin could disclose is that it involves going after “the bad guys,” of whom I imagine there are no shortage in those parts.
When Colin and his buddies aren’t on duty, what is their chief avocation? Figuring out how they can get on Full Tilt and play some poker.
Colin and I have been corresponding since he entered my contest, “Michael Craig is Giving it Away.” Almost all my connections with the U.S. military are abstract. I’m against war. I’m in favor of protection. I’m in favor of strength. I’m against bullying. I’m in favor of attacking evil. I’m against putting our people in unnecessary danger.
You know, the same beliefs just about everyone else has. But my children are too young to serve, I’m too old, and our family has never been a military family. I know our military serves vital purposes but also that it can be manipulated to bad ends. I unreservedly support the people who serve in the military but it’s hard for me to connect with them.
Before Colin, I don’t know if I’ve known anyone on active duty in the U.S. military. His unit was about to ship to Afghanistan when our correspondence began and he told me what a bunch of poker nuts they were. I sent him a box of Full Tilt hats and copies of my books.
His unit is now in Afghanistan. We are in touch by e-mail. Internet café? Military computers? I don’t ask. Colin thanked me for the books. “I know of four other people who are in the process of reading them now,” he wrote. The hunt was on for a way to play online “because I got my entire shop addicted, including both my Sgts who are in charge of me.”
The risks of bringing Full Tilt Poker to Afghanistan are considerable. The government computers are monitored 24 hours a day. Colin explained to me, “The Marine Corps really, really frowns upon gambling, and especially with my job and me having top secret clearance they really look down upon it because they’re afraid of you going into debt, and you can’t have top secret clearance if you’re in debt.”
So that seals it, right? Not quite.
Colin is watching online poker for now. He is testing to see if anyone is monitoring him. If “the coast is clear,” perhaps he and his friends will start playing.
In the meantime, Colin closed his most recent e-mail with news of another possible dodge. “I heard a rumor that the Dutch have wireless internet somewhere, so today I’m gonna go try to find some Dutchies and see if I can make some friends and they can tell me where the oasis is.”
In my limited understanding of military operations, individual initiative is considered a bad thing. The chief values are chain-of-command, operating properly within the group, etc. In most of the stories I have read about those actually serving in the military, however, the spirit of the individual flourishes in such conditions and efforts to thwart it tend to fail.
So I’m betting on Colin and his buddies.
