Category: Afghanistan
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The Best Chowkidar in the Universe
Way back in 2007, on one of my earliest tours in Afghanistan, I was responsible for writing these weekly situation reports, and I recall there was an open source report being published in the UK that I would regularly rely on as a source, because the author was able to get more detailed information on…
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Reflecting on Afghanistan, 2006
Today, September 11, was a day of service to the local community. A group of Americans and Indians did some cleanup, painting, and entertaining of children at a local school for the mentally handicapped. The idea was to get out and do something for the needy, either in honor of those who lost their lives…
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Afghanistan: The Power of Photography
Free and open media are at the heart of maintaining a free and democratic state. This is especially applicable to photojournalism, due to the power of photographs to convey emotion and meaning often eluding other media forms. This was a key component of the thinking that led me, in 2009, to conceive of a photo…
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Documentary: Child Labor in Afghanistan
I wish I could say I had made this documentary on child labor in Afghanistan. This is a story that needs to be told; the circumstances in Afghanistan have led many, many children to lose any real childhood whatsoever. The filmmakers, who work for an Afghan television station, would not have had to look hard…
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Afghanistan, Then and Now
The Denver Post has just posted a wonderful collection of photos of Afghanistan from the 1960s which paints a world that was remarkably different than it is today. Taken by William Podlich, a professor from Arizona State University who took a break to teach in Afghanistan, the photos serve as a reminder of an Afghanistan…
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US Army in Afghanistan Parodies “Call Me Maybe”
Here’s the latest effort by troops deployed overseas to blow off a little steam and connect with friends and family back home. Some may feel it’s inappropriate – but you have to come up with things like this to stay sane sometimes. This is their description: A cover of “Call Me Maybe” performed by US…
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Why Afghanistan Matters
For what it’s worth, I spent the last five years of my military career (now retired) working for Afghanistan in the communication realm. Over the course of my ten trips there between 2006 and 2011, I felt constantly annoyed, yet challenged, by the relatively superficial portrayal of the country being served to the rest of…
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Tracks in the Dust: Songs from Afghanistan
It’s said that combat duty consists of long periods of boredom interspersed by brief moments of terror. In Kabul, Afghanistan, it tends to be long, tedious work hours, interspersed with sleep. In this environment, maintaining one’s sanity often leads to skimping a bit on sleep in order to have some “personal time” – whether it’s…