Life Before Death

"I left embed with British forces in Kandahar, and flew to Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand Province. Helmand is the biggest opium source of the world today. I write these words from Nangarhar, where bin Laden had made his home....

Lashkar Gah

Western attitudes about the Afghans are interesting. There seems to be a general feeling of affection towards most Afghans, and I find the Afghans approachable and easy to get along with. The food I’ve eaten in different provinces is excellent, and I also enjoy talking with Afghanis. Many soldiers, journalists and foreign workers have expressed similar experiences here. Tom Ricks, the outstanding American journalist who authored Fiasco (a very important book about the Iraq war), spent some of his childhood years in Afghanistan. Tom emailed me about Afghanistan, saying: “I love the country…” On another occasion, Tom wrote to me about his childhood here:

“When I was a kid we used to go down to the Helmand for Christmas, stopping in Kandahar for milkshakes at the American USAID outpost there. It was lovely that time of year. Lashkar Gah was a Little America out in the desert. The big dams north of there were built by the Americans in the '50s--the subject of James Michner's novel Caravans.”"
Michael yon

Another post jammed with pictures