Lone Survivor_ The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 ( PDFDrive )

Jesus Christ! I mean, Muhammad! Or Allah! Whoever’s in charge around
here. This kid really was from a gingerbread village.
Sarawa returned. They gave me some more water. And again he checked
over my wound. Didn’t look one bit happy. But there were more important
things to discuss than the state of my backside.
I did not, of course, realize this. But the decision Sarawa and his friends were
making carried huge responsibilities and, possibly, momentous consequences:
They had to decide whether to take me in. Whether to help me, shelter me, and
feed me. Most important, whether to defend me.
These people were Pashtuns. And the majority of the warriors who fought
under the banner of the former rulers of Afghanistan, plus a vast number of bin
Laden’s al Qaeda fighters, were members of this strict and ancient tribe, almost
thirteen million of whom live right here in Afghanistan.
That steel core of the Taliban sect, that iron resolve and deadly hatred of the
infidel, is unwaveringly Pashtun. The backbone of that vicious little tribal army
is Pashtun. The Taliban moves around these mountains only by the unspoken
approval and tacit permission of the Pashtuns, who grant them food and shelter.
The two communities, the warriors and the general mountain populace, are
irrevocably bound together. The mujahideen fighting the Russians were
principally Pashtun.
Never mind “No Taliban.” I knew the background. These guys might be
peace-loving villagers on the surface, but the tribal blood ties were wrought in
iron. Faced with an angry Taliban army demanding the head of an armed
American serviceman, you would essentially not give a secondhand billy goat
for the American’s chances.
And yet there was something I did not know. We’re talking lokhay warkawal
— an unbending section of historic Pashtun-walai tribal law as laid out in the
hospitality section. The literal translation of lokhay warkawal is “giving of a
pot.”
I did mention this briefly when I outlined the Pashtun tribal background
much earlier. But this is the part where it really counts. This is where the ole
lokhay warkawal gets shoved into context. Right here, while I’m lying on the
ground bleeding to death, and the tribesmen are discussing my fate.
To an American, especially one in such terrible shape as I was, the concept
of helping out a wounded, possibly dying man is pretty routine. You do what you
can. For these guys, the concept carried many onerous responsibilities. Lokhay
means not only providing care and shelter, it means an unbreakable commitment