Greetings from Afghanistan!

Well I'm writing my first entry in the NDJ blog on a dusty laptop linked up to all sorts of dusty kit, having dusted myself off after wading through the dust sand in Camp Bastion to get to the Squadron Headquarters. What's it like in the Afghanistan desert, home to the Commando Logistic Regiment? Dusty.

In all seriousness, the challenges of Afghanistan are, on a day to day basis, environmental. Dust, heat, snow, mud, mountains, wadis, flies and more dust. We're here to help rebuild a country which has never been a lush, comfortable or accepting place to work. It is a serious challenge and so difficult to picture without being here. I'll try to paint a picture for you as I go. I'll describe to you over the next few months the difficulties which a sometimes mountainous, sometimes barren, sometimes frozen, sometimes baked landscape poses for even the best trained and equipped armed forces.

Our role is not to hunt out terrorists, but to help the Afghan people make enough of their potentially vibrant country that they reject the terrorist movement as a whole. So why is Afghanistan so vulnerable? In my opionion it is because it needs a big leg up to start off with. Extremist views settle in areas of deprivation and suffering. This is no different from areas of Europe, the Americas, and the Far East in that sense.

And the plan is working. All are my personal thoughts, and should not be taken as the 'party line', but most of Afghanistan is settling down. Helmand Province, admittedly, is a remaining 'problem child' of the country, which is why we have such a potent force deployed here, where the British, the Danes, the Americans, the Canadians, the Estonians and a multitude of other attached forces are accomplishing so much.

OK - enough grand strategy from a lowly Lt. I'll also mention what life is like here for the thousands of us, guys and girls, and what our average day includes. Any requests?

Andy