Telltale Scribes of Timbuktu and the Green Beret's Girlfriend

[silentreader]

Interesting article from the January issue of Nat Geo. The whole thing is worth a read but this section jumped out and caught my eye. Has anybody heard this story before?

The Green Beret’s Girlfriend

The young woman appeared among the jacaranda trees of the garden café wearing tight jeans and a pink T-shirt. She smiled nervously, and I understood how the Green Beret had fallen for her. Aisha (not her real name) was 23 years old, petite, with a slender figure. She worked as a waitress. Her jet black skin was unblemished except for delicate ritual scars near her temples, which drew attention to her large, catlike eyes.

We met across from the Flame of Peace, a monument built from some 3,000 guns burned and encased in concrete. It commemorates the 1996 accord that ended the rebellion waged by Tuareg and Arabs against the government, the last time outright war visited Timbuktu.

Aisha pulled five tightly folded pieces of paper from her purse and laid them on the table next to a photograph of a Caucasian man with a toothy smile. He appeared to be in his 30s and was wearing a royal blue Arab-style robe and an indigo turban. "That is David," she said, lightly brushing a bit of sand from the photo.

They had met in December 2006, when the U.S. had sent a Special Forces team to train Malian soldiers to fight AQIM. David had seen her walking down the street and remarked to his local interpreter how beautiful she was. The interpreter arranged an introduction, and soon the rugged American soldier and the Malian beauty were meeting for picnics on the sand dunes ringing the city and driving to the Niger River to watch the hippos gather in the shallows. Tears welled in Aisha's eyes as she recounted these dates. She paused to wipe her face. "He only spoke a little French," she said, laughing at the memory of their awkward communication.

Aisha's parents also came from starkly different cultures. Her mother's ancestors were Songhai, among the intellectuals who helped create Timbuktu's scholarly tradition. Her father, a Fulani, descended from the fierce jihadis who seized power in the early 1800s and imposed sharia in Timbuktu. In Aisha's mind, her relationship with David continued a long tradition of mingling cultures. Many people pass through Timbuktu, she said. "Who is to say who Allah brings together?"

Two weeks after the couple met, David asked her to come to the United States. He wanted her to bring her two-year-old son from a previous relationship and start a life together. When her family heard the news, her uncle told David that since Aisha was Muslim, he would have to convert if he wanted to marry her. To his surprise, David agreed.

Three nights before Christmas, David left the Special Forces compound after curfew and met one of Aisha's brothers, who drove him through the dark, twisting streets to the home of an imam. Through an interpreter the imam instructed the American to kneel facing Mecca and recite the shahadah three times: "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet." He gave the soldier a Koran and instructed him to pray five times a day and to seek Allah's path for his life.

When David returned to the compound, his superiors were waiting for him. They confined him to quarters for violating security rules. Over the next week, he was not allowed to mix with the other Green Berets nor permitted to see Aisha, but he was able to smuggle out three letters. One begins: "My dearest [Aisha], Peace be upon you. I love you. I am a Muslim. I am very happy that I have been shown the road to Allah, and I wouldn't have done it without meeting you. I think Allah brought me here to you  …" He continues: "I am not to leave the American house. But this does not matter. The Amer*icans cannot keep me from Allah, nor stop my love for you. Allahu Akbar. I will return to the States on Friday."

Aisha never saw him again. He sent two emails from the United States. In the last message she received from him, he told her that the Army was sending him to Iraq and that he was afraid of what might happen. She continued to email him, but after a month or so her notes began bouncing back.

As she spoke, Aisha noticed tears had fallen onto the letters. She smoothed them into the paper and then carefully folded up the documents. She said she would continue to wait for David to send for her. "He lives in North Carolina," she said, and the way she pronounced North Carolina in French made me think she imagined it to be a distant and exotic land.

I tried to lighten her mood, teasing that she had better be careful or Abdel Kader Haidara would hear of her letters. After all, they are Timbuktu manuscripts, and he will want them for his library. She wiped her eyes once more. "If I can have David, he can have the letters."

should make for a wonderful independent movie, one of four repeated Shakespeare themes, but for our time with current social political idealologies in the front lines.

circa, 1970, Vietnam, Republic of; soldier meets girl, girl has ties to the Viet Cong, (brother), etc.

[uplink5]

Originally Posted by wet dog

should make for a wonderful independent movie, one of four repeated Shakespeare themes, but for our time with current social political idealologies in the front lines.

circa, 1970, Vietnam, Republic of; soldier meets girl, girl has ties to the Viet Cong, (brother), etc.

Exactly!!! Wasn't this done in Good Morning Vietnam?

This National Geographic article sounds more like a cross between Romeo & Juliet and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner!

I'd have to wait for the video.

...jd

[JJ_BPK]

Sure sounds like a cross between BS Fiction, Reality TV, Docu-drama and Sitcom??

Were is tri-care dental support when you need them??

http://www.tricaredentalprogram.com/tdptws/home.jsp

Aisha pulled five tightly folded pieces of paper from her purse and laid them on the table next to a photograph of a Caucasian man with a toothy smile. He appeared to be in his 30s and was wearing a royal blue Arab-style robe and an indigo turban. "That is David," she said, lightly brushing a bit of sand from the photo.

PS: This is Amazing,,

Search google for this quote: "Her mother's ancestors were Songhai, a"..

and this post is # 3 after two NG hits,, in under 4 hours...

They love us...

[ZonieDiver]

It sounds to me as if the guy worked very hard in order to 'get some'!

I am sure NO one here has ever used the 'I can't come to see you because I'm confined to quarters' line...

[Dusty]

Sounds like he put the love of an indig in front of the welfare of his team. No-Go.

[Richard]

An updated version of a Robin Moore story of an SF 'advisor' OpCon'd to somebody else in Laos - love does things to people - but who knows.

Richard

[alright4u]

Originally Posted by Richard

An updated version of a Robin Moore story of an SF 'advisor' OpCon'd to somebody else in Laos - love does things to people - but who knows.

Richard

One of the most beautiful women I have ever seen was engaged to a II Corps MF CPT, also a BN CO. She worked in the B-23 club in downtown BMT.

He was well know in SF.

The CPT was KIA. What a sharp SF trooper.