The Shepherd and the SEAL: An Afghan Tale

by Joe Katzman at July 13, 2005 05:23 PM on winds of change

Bill Roggio covered Red Wing Down, the recent story of the Special Forces MH-47 Chinook helicopter downed while trying to recover a Navy SEAL team. Now TIME Magazine does a fine job telling the story of the SEAL who escaped.

Some excerpts - and explanations:

"U.S. officials say the commandos kept up a running fire fight with their pursuers for more than two miles. The known survivor recalls seeing two of his friends shot. At one point he blacked out, possibly from a mortar round landing close by. When he regained consciousness, two of his teammates - Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny Dietz, 25, and Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29 - were dead, and a third had vanished in the darkness and fog. The surviving SEAL dragged himself at least another mile up into the mountains. It was there he was found four days later by Gulab the shepherd."

Gulab took him in after an initial tense standoff, and brought him home. Shortly thereafter, a village council was called. The story doesn't say, but the purpose appears to have been to warn the village and, by making the American's presence clear, to obligate the whole village to defend him.

"The Taliban was not so agreeable. That night the fighters sent a message to the villagers: "We want this infidel." A firm reply from the village chief, Shinah, shot back. "The American is our guest, and we won't give him up as long as there's a man or a woman left alive in our village." As a precaution, the villagers moved the injured commando out of Gulab's house and hid him in a stable overnight, until it was safe for Gulab to make the six-hour trek down to the U.S. base at Asadabad and report that the SEAL - by then the subject of an intense search - was alive.

Sometime later, Gulab went back to his village and then returned to Asadabad with the commando, this time reuniting the wounded and weary SEAL with his jubilant comrades."
Note that reply from Shinah. Unlike many of the Arab/Islamic utterances we've become used to hearing, this was not an idle boast. The Pashtun code of hospitality extends to everyone. Doesn't matter if you're an American commando or Osama Bin Laden himself - they're honour bound to give sanctuary to strangers, and to conceal or defend any guest to the death. To forfeit that obligation is a death sentence of its own if word gets out, and to attack a village harbouring a guest is likely to ignite a blood-feud.

This is, of course, one of the dynamics that complicates the search for Bin Laden and other senior Taliban/al-Qaeda figures, and explains why many are caught in Pakistani cities instead of Afghan hills.

Still, there are consequences to all decisions, and one's enemies may decide to hold a grudge:
"It is a testament to the persistent insecurity in Afghanistan that Gulab now fears that his act of compassion may mean his death warrant. After returning the SEAL, he went back to grab his family and flee before the Taliban would come round seeking revenge."

Ah, al-Qaeda's infamous "hearts and minds strategy" again. Feuds of this sort are hardly uncommon in Afghanistan, though it is considered poor form to persecute a Pashtun for honouring the code. And if the al-Qaedists do succeed in killing Gulab while he's out tending his sheep, those close to him will be honor-bound to seek revenge of their own. Reading this stuff, you begin to understand where that Draco guy was coming from, back in the day....

Back to Gulab, who is a human being and not a trend or an abstraction.

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