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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...age-that-saved-navy-seal-marcus-luttrell.html
Nearly a decade after Mohammad Gulab and his fellow villagers rescued and protected wounded Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, they remain Taliban targets—but they’ve never regretted their kindness.
Nearly eight-and-a-half years after Mohammad Gulab and his fellow villagers harbored and saved the life of a gravely wounded U.S. Navy SEAL, they say they are still proud of their courageous action and would do it again in spite of the disappointments and troubles that have followed. In the face of point-blank Taliban threats to overrun the small village of Sabray in remote Kunar Province, along the porous and mountainous frontier with Pakistan, the villagers bravely protected, gave first aid to, fed, and clothed Marcus Luttrell, the wounded Special Warfare Operator, the only survivor of a four-man SEAL patrol.
A village elder even secretly carried a note hidden inside his clothing—written by Luttrell and indicating the exact spot where he could be rescued—through Taliban lines at great personal danger. “I have no regrets for what my family, my fellow villagers and I have done,” Gulab tells the Daily Beast. “We knew what the Taliban’s reaction would be from the day we carried him in our door.”
The Taliban have made no secret that Gulab, his family and other villagers who assisted Luttrell remain marked men. “The person Gulab is exiled forever from the day he left his village with the wounded U.S. soldier,” the local Taliban commander, Qari Moued Safi, tells the Daily Beast. “He remains a target and one day soon he will face death.” Safi makes the same threat toward other villagers and warns them never again to help a wounded “infidel” soldier. “The Taliban hate our small village of 60 homes and families,” says Sabray villager Muhammad Jan, 45. “They call us the village that protects infidel U.S. soldiers.”
Soon after he saved Luttrell, Gulab was forced to abandon his home, his possessions and even his pickup truck due to Taliban death threats. Insurgents burned down his little lumber business in Sabray. He and his wife and their six children at the time moved in with his brother-in-law near the U.S. base at Asadabad, the provincial capital. He is now in the U.S., living in California with his 10 kids, assisted by Luttrell, the publishers of his 2012 book titled Lone Survivor, and the producers of the movie of the same name, starring Mark Wahlberg, that is due to be released at the end of the year. Gulab says the actor who plays him in the film bears a striking resemblance to him.
At the end of the movie, he proudly says, his photograph will be shown as part of the credits. He says he hopes to receive some seven percent of the book’s revenues but does not know if he will get any film royalties. Gulab is even working on his own book about the incident with the assistance of Patrick Robinson, the co-author of Luttrell’s book. But Gulab sadly tells The Daily Beast that in the face of the continuing Taliban threats he is unlikely ever to be able to return to his still threatened village.
Gulab and the other villagers insist that they saved Luttrell out of obedience to the ages-old ethnic-Pashtun tradition known as Pashtunwali. That ancient code obliges Pashtuns to help and protect anyone in need, friend or enemy. “We did not rescue Marcus for money or privileges,” Gulab says. “By rescuing and keeping him safe for five nights in our home we were only doing our cultural obligation.” Insurgent commander Safi doesn’t buy the villagers’ Pashtunwali defense. “Pashtunwali does not extend to helping oppressors and infidel aggressors such as that American soldier who is an enemy of Islam,” he says.
Sabray’s villagers strongly disagree. Jan, who helped Gulab care for Luttrell, even rather hyperbolically equates what Gulab did to Mullah Mohammad Omar’s refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden to the U.S. even at the cost of his Islamic regime and a great loss of Afghan lives. “They both gambled with people’s lives in the name of Pashtunwali,” says Jan, 45. “Omar sacrificed his regime while Gulab put his, his family’s and his villagers’ lives at risk by proudly giving a safe haven to the wounded U.S. soldier.”
While that may be an over-the-top and erroneous comparison, it shows how steadfast the villagers are in feeling that they did the right thing. Jan says most other villagers in the region agree. “Our village is now very famous,” says Jan. “Some villagers in the area call us traitors. But most praise us for being correct and honorable.” Jan, who helped care for Luttrell, never thought the injured SEAL would survive. “When I first saw this frightened soldier I never thought he would make his way out of Gulab’s house alive,” Jan recalls. “I could not find hope in his eyes which were tired and hopeless. His skin was dry. But I was wrong.”
Nearly a decade after Mohammad Gulab and his fellow villagers rescued and protected wounded Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, they remain Taliban targets—but they’ve never regretted their kindness.
Nearly eight-and-a-half years after Mohammad Gulab and his fellow villagers harbored and saved the life of a gravely wounded U.S. Navy SEAL, they say they are still proud of their courageous action and would do it again in spite of the disappointments and troubles that have followed. In the face of point-blank Taliban threats to overrun the small village of Sabray in remote Kunar Province, along the porous and mountainous frontier with Pakistan, the villagers bravely protected, gave first aid to, fed, and clothed Marcus Luttrell, the wounded Special Warfare Operator, the only survivor of a four-man SEAL patrol.
A village elder even secretly carried a note hidden inside his clothing—written by Luttrell and indicating the exact spot where he could be rescued—through Taliban lines at great personal danger. “I have no regrets for what my family, my fellow villagers and I have done,” Gulab tells the Daily Beast. “We knew what the Taliban’s reaction would be from the day we carried him in our door.”
The Taliban have made no secret that Gulab, his family and other villagers who assisted Luttrell remain marked men. “The person Gulab is exiled forever from the day he left his village with the wounded U.S. soldier,” the local Taliban commander, Qari Moued Safi, tells the Daily Beast. “He remains a target and one day soon he will face death.” Safi makes the same threat toward other villagers and warns them never again to help a wounded “infidel” soldier. “The Taliban hate our small village of 60 homes and families,” says Sabray villager Muhammad Jan, 45. “They call us the village that protects infidel U.S. soldiers.”
Soon after he saved Luttrell, Gulab was forced to abandon his home, his possessions and even his pickup truck due to Taliban death threats. Insurgents burned down his little lumber business in Sabray. He and his wife and their six children at the time moved in with his brother-in-law near the U.S. base at Asadabad, the provincial capital. He is now in the U.S., living in California with his 10 kids, assisted by Luttrell, the publishers of his 2012 book titled Lone Survivor, and the producers of the movie of the same name, starring Mark Wahlberg, that is due to be released at the end of the year. Gulab says the actor who plays him in the film bears a striking resemblance to him.
At the end of the movie, he proudly says, his photograph will be shown as part of the credits. He says he hopes to receive some seven percent of the book’s revenues but does not know if he will get any film royalties. Gulab is even working on his own book about the incident with the assistance of Patrick Robinson, the co-author of Luttrell’s book. But Gulab sadly tells The Daily Beast that in the face of the continuing Taliban threats he is unlikely ever to be able to return to his still threatened village.
Gulab and the other villagers insist that they saved Luttrell out of obedience to the ages-old ethnic-Pashtun tradition known as Pashtunwali. That ancient code obliges Pashtuns to help and protect anyone in need, friend or enemy. “We did not rescue Marcus for money or privileges,” Gulab says. “By rescuing and keeping him safe for five nights in our home we were only doing our cultural obligation.” Insurgent commander Safi doesn’t buy the villagers’ Pashtunwali defense. “Pashtunwali does not extend to helping oppressors and infidel aggressors such as that American soldier who is an enemy of Islam,” he says.
Sabray’s villagers strongly disagree. Jan, who helped Gulab care for Luttrell, even rather hyperbolically equates what Gulab did to Mullah Mohammad Omar’s refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden to the U.S. even at the cost of his Islamic regime and a great loss of Afghan lives. “They both gambled with people’s lives in the name of Pashtunwali,” says Jan, 45. “Omar sacrificed his regime while Gulab put his, his family’s and his villagers’ lives at risk by proudly giving a safe haven to the wounded U.S. soldier.”
While that may be an over-the-top and erroneous comparison, it shows how steadfast the villagers are in feeling that they did the right thing. Jan says most other villagers in the region agree. “Our village is now very famous,” says Jan. “Some villagers in the area call us traitors. But most praise us for being correct and honorable.” Jan, who helped care for Luttrell, never thought the injured SEAL would survive. “When I first saw this frightened soldier I never thought he would make his way out of Gulab’s house alive,” Jan recalls. “I could not find hope in his eyes which were tired and hopeless. His skin was dry. But I was wrong.”
