Steven Pressfield: The Afgan Campaign

I scoffed, once, at Ash’s god. But he has beaten us. Mute, pitiless, remote, Afghanistan’s deity gives up nothing. One appeals to him in vain. Yet he sustains those who call themselves his children, who wring a living from this stony and sterile land.

I have come to fear this god of the Afghans. And that has made me a fighting man, as they are.

BAZ = any Afghan male

BHANG = opium

BLINKERED = pregnant

BLOW-OUT/BLOW-OFF = party, celebration

BONE = complaint, problem

BONZE = sleep

BOOGER = walk, shuffle

BOZZLE = alcoholic spirits

BRISKETS-DOWN = dead

BUMP = eighteen-month term of enlistment for the Macedonian army

BUMP OVER = to re-up; reenlist

CAULK = kill

CHAPPED = irritated, angry; pissed off

CHOP = march, trek

COOCH = women; sex in general

CURE = kill

DUST = discard, throw away; also kill

FIG = female genitalia; women in general

IN THE BOOKS = dead

JUTE = Afghan narcotic

MACK = Macedonian

MOOCH = barley meal; or, in broader usage, any type of food

NAZZ = naswar, cheap Afghan opiate

NOISE = rumor, news

PANK (AND JACK) = cheap rotgut booze

SCUFF = soldier

SEND HOME = kill

SHINE = gold, money, cash of any kind

SKIP = a discharge from the army

SPIKE = noun: involuntarily extended enlistment; verb: to extend troops’ enlistment without their permission; “We got spiked.”

STEAM = women

STITCH = kill

STUNT = an allowance, above and beyond wages, given to cavalry and mounted infantry to cover expenses for grooms and feed

WAX SCRATCHER = writer, war correspondent