These are a set of old photos circa 2003. A friend gave these to me on a disk that I’ve had in my storage room for about a decade.
This guy traveled all over the country. Ghazni, Bamian, Bagram, Kabul. So the photos are scatter shot and I can’t tell for certain where each photo was taken. Some are obvious. The Bamian Buddhas or what’s left of them are, of course, in Bamian. Some of the photos are obviously from Kabul or Bagram.
Well, it’s obvious if you’ve been there.
Enjoy…Dave
These are a set of old photos circa 2003. A friend gave these to me on a disk that I’ve had in my storage room for about a decade.
This guy traveled all over the country. Ghazni, Bamian, Bagram, Kabul. So the photos are scatter shot and I can’t tell for certain where each photo was taken. Some are obvious. The Bamian Buddhas or what’s left of them are, of course, in Bamian. Some of the photos are obviously from Kabul or Bagram.
Well, it’s obvious if you’ve been there.
Enjoy…Dave
These are a set of old photos circa 2003. A friend gave these to me on a disk that I’ve had in my storage room for about a decade.
This guy traveled all over the country. Ghazni, Bamian, Bagram, Kabul. So the photos are scatter shot and I can’t tell for certain where each photo was taken. Some are obvious. The Bamian Buddhas or what’s left of them are, of course, in Bamian. Some of the photos are obviously from Kabul or Bagram.
Well, it’s obvious if you’ve been there.
Enjoy…Dave
These are a set of old photos circa 2003. A friend gave these to me on a disk that I’ve had in my storage room for about a decade.
This guy traveled all over the country. Ghazni, Bamian, Bagram, Kabul. So the photos are scatter shot and I can’t tell for certain where each photo was taken. Some are obvious. The Bamian Buddhas or what’s left of them are, of course, in Bamian. Some of the photos are obviously from Kabul or Bagram.
Well, it’s obvious if you’ve been there.
Enjoy…Dave
Big Fire on Jalalabad Road. A Benzine (that’s gas for my American friends) truck overturned and BOOM!!! Up in flames. It was a helluva fire. I swear it was like 30 to 40 feet in the air and spread at least twice on the ground. Burned for a good couple of hours before they got it under control.
![[carbomb0518]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-IN443_carbom_F_20100518053313.jpg)
By ALAN CULLISON
A spokesman from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said six “international service members were killed and several wounded” in the attack, but wouldn’t reveal their nationalities.
Gen. Khalil Dastyar, the deputy police chief of Kabul, said the dead NATO members were American. The Associated Press reported that five of them were U.S. troops; the nationality of the sixth wasn’t immediately disclosed.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that a car loaded with 1,200 pounds of explosives rammed into a U.S. convoy at about 8:30 a.m. local time.
The blast destroyed at least 12 civilian vehicles, one of them a civilian bus; its charred remains were left resting near the road. NATO said five of its vehicles were damaged.
The bomber targeted a small convoy of U.S. military vehicles that were moving along the road near the recruitment center, officials said. The road also skirts a U.S. military base, Camp Julien, that hosts a counterinsurgency training academy for both Afghan and U.S. military personnel.
I stood at this spot not two months ago. This exact spot. That pillar that is knocked over is from the 19th Century from the time of the Afghan Kings. Off to the right of the pillar is the National Museum of Afghansitan. I took a photograph standing next to that pillar when I stopped at the Museum. Strange to think that this could have been me getting hit. Wrong time, wrong place. I was lucky. Right time. Right place. No bombs. Aside from the scant traffic, it was just begger kids, Afghan Police, a few other tourists and a few merchants. No talib assholes or other Wahhabist scum around.
Thank God!
May God Protect our Soldiers and Civilians in Afghansitan and may he protect the Afghan People as well. May he strike down the scourge of evil that is the taliban. Amen.
Spent last night on the New Kabul Compound. Yep! After 5 years, it’s finally open. Not finished yet, but, it’s open.
I arrived last night about 5 PM and called Jonathan to meet me. Wound up walking around the whole compound to find him. Took all of 3 and a 1/2 minutes.
Passed a sign that says “Sniper, Begin Sprint.” Then another that said “Safe, Walk again.”
The Army has a sense of humor. lol
Apparently, someone thought that there were snipers along Airport road. Fuckin ‘ Newbies! I thought the Army was supposed to be brave and on top of that kind of thing. Those hills were cleared out back in 2004. I guess it feels tougher if you can tell yourself that you’re braving sniper fire daily. lol
Jonathan and I spent the night hanging out and talking over cold sodas, beef jerky and potato chips. All the while dreaming about having a Jack and Coke and wings.
The Army and General Order #1. The downfall of good times in a war zone. Meanwhile, the Italians, Brits and French are drinking heartily over on ISAF HQ and hundreds of ISAF bases around the country.
God Bless America! Home of the Tali-Baptists and Fundamentalists Extremist Protestants who love to send their kids to war at the ripe old age of 18 and 19 but GOD FORBID they have a @#$%^&*@! beer!
Can you say RE-TAR—–DID!!!! (p.s. yes, I know that’s mispelled…lol)
Good times anyway…thousands of miles from home in a safe and cozy little war zone with my little Bro.
Gotta love it.
These little cuties run around in front of our safehouse in Kabul. Cute as a button and a little attitude to boot. lol
Go Big Blue!!!
Big Pat, if you need any back up, give me a yell. lol
Go Cats!!!
When I was a kid, I collected stamps. So when I came across this little gem, I had to pick it up. These stamps are from the time before the Soviet invasion. The time of King Zahir Shah. The last King of Afghanistan. They’re a link to a time when Afghanistan was at peace with itself. When it’s peoples were mostly just neighbors to one another. Before bin Laden and Mullah Omar. A time before sucide bombers and taliban and ruined cities and foreign occupations. This was a time when Afghans looked on their Western visitors as merely strange figures on whom they visited warm hospitality. It was a time when visitors were considered guests and were treated as such. ‘The pushtoon code meant something and the mehmet was indeed a welcomed and honoured guest whether they were Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist or Jew. Westerners weren’t peace keepers. We weren’t soldiers or policemen or civlian contractors for America or ISAF or NATO soldiers. Westerners were merely visitors with strange behaviors. Strangers who seemed to have an even stranger affinity for opium and hashish. Merchants from the West in search of carpets and tapestries, emeralds and rubies and lapis to sell in their homelands.
Back then, the hippy trail ran through Iran to Herat and on to Kabul. Lone travelers came and left unmolested. The Mustafa Hotel in Kabul gave some respite and a chance to shake off the dust of the road. It still stands and the occasional brave traveler stops there for a night or two until he moves on into Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal and India. I have read that some of the hippy communities still exist in Goa. I’m sure that there are others. Guys who dropped out of the West and traveled to Asia in search of peace or freedom or a final escape.
Afghanistan actually knew peace back in those days. Before the communists came and ruined everything. The King was attempting to make reforms. Give women rights. Construct a constitution. Educate his people and move them into the 20th Century.
What might have been.
So this is a “peace” of that time. A memento as the Afghans like to say. A small reminder that Afghanistan was not always as it finds itself now.
