The subdued radio rendition of "Paint it black" by the Rolling Stones is a rare reminder for troops in the deserts of Afghanistan of the iconic rock and roll background to the conflict in the jungles of Vietnam.

Here, the iPod has made the music of war more personal.

"People now listen to their own stuff -- funk or rap or rock or whatever," says a Dutch soldier with the NATO-led International Security Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan's southern Uruzgan province.

What hasn't changed since the Vietnam war is that the troops are young, mostly in their late teens and early twenties, with only some of the officers breaching 30.

And despite changes that have brought more women into modern armies, the military in Afghanistan is still an overwhelmingly macho machine and Playboy magazine is still a fixture of war.

But today's troops also have the likes of Lady Gaga and the Pussycat Dolls available on satellite television even in remote outposts, something the soldiers of a couple of generations ago could only dream of.

Another crucial difference between the two wars is that most NATO troops are volunteers -- unlike the sometimes bitter and rebellious conscripts of Vietnam.

They want to be tough, and they want to fight.

During their spare time many of the already-big men spend a lot of effort getting bigger, working out in well-equipped gyms or, stuck on a mountain during a patrol, pumping rocks -- for fun.

The stores on the main bases are full of body-building supplements -- along with combat knives and special forces gear for soldiers who apparently find the sophisticated modern weaponry provided by their governments to be inadequate.

In the Mirwais outpost in Uruzgan, "Modern Warfare" is a popular video game played on a large screen in the mess, where the chattering of fake automatic fire echoes the real thing from the firing range behind the base.

The Dutch approach to the war in Afghanistan is focused more on winning hearts and minds through development and diplomacy than on killing insurgents linked to the hardline Islamist Taliban regime, who were ousted in 2001.

That can make life a little complicated for the troops, some of whom suggest only half-jokingly that they envy US soldiers who, they believe, have more licence to "kick ass".

"It's easier to kick ass because that's what we are trained for," Sergeant Rob told AFP, providing only his rank and first name according to Dutch military procedure.

"But now we have to think about a lot of other things," he mused, relaxing in the sunshine on a small smoking deck behind Mirwais' blast-proof walls and gazing out at the surrounding snow-dusted mountains.

On patrols through towns and villages the troops sometimes try to engage with the local population, buying food and firewood from local traders -- or cakes, which they hand out to children.

But often the soldiers are greeted only by a stony, watchful silence from bearded men in turbans and robes as they walk through the bazaars with rifles at the ready.

Private First Class Siegfried says he doesn't know the Afghan people because he can't speak their language.

"I can't understand them, but I've got no reason to hate them. Their culture is different," he says.

"It's another world," is a common response to questions on how the troops feel about Uruzgan, an impoverished province of barren mountains and narrow river valleys where life has changed little over the centuries.

But in the military bases, billions of dollars of Western taxpayers' money keep the generators humming, the jets and the helicopters flying -- and the soldiers fed.

In outposts such as Mirwais, the troops eat mainly ready-cooked rations -- meals-ready-to-eat or MREs -- with regular fare limited to a range of stews.

But in a major ISAF base, like Kamp Holland in the provincial capital Tirin Kot, life is relatively luxurious, with the selection of food on offer -- if not the quality of the cooking -- good enough for a mid-range hotel.

Main courses can include roast turkey or chicken, steak, spare ribs, pasta and all the trimmings, plus a range of salads, breads and five different kinds of fruit, along with half-a-dozen choices of coffee.

That's a lot more variety than can be found in the outfits worn to dinner, however, where camouflage is always the new black.

The occasional blond ponytail over a shapeless uniform indicates there are some women on the base, but they, like their dinner companions, tend to have pistols strapped to their thighs.

In Mirwais the troops live in tents; in Kamp Holland they sleep and work in shipping containers with roofs armoured against rocket attack.

There is a popular volley-ball court in the dust of Kamp Holland, not far from a memorial to the 21 Dutch soldiers who have been killed in the Afghanistan campaign.

At night some soldiers play chess or cards, but many spend their spare time chatting to their wives and girlfriends through Internet connections -- another innovation that would have startled their Vietnam counterparts.

A tour of duty for Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan is four-and-a-half months, after which the men at Mirwais were due to get a couple of days in Crete.

There they will speak to military psychologists about their experience, have their first beers and blow off a little steam before heading home -- to whatever beat their iPods provide.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News