Utterly unrelated to the usual Europhobia fare, but Diderot’s Lounge has a great series of posts from one of their bloggers from a recent trip to Afghanistan, with more promised, which are well worth a look:
- Afghan Trip I – Getting There
- Afghan Trip II – Kunduz, Mazar, but not Bamian
- Afghan Trip III – My thoughts on this fight, all fights and shopping
- Afghan Trip IV – Children in Kabl and Mercenary Barbeque
- Afghan Trip V – Trying to Leave
- Informal versus Formal Posts and Russia versus the Taliban
- The difference between the US and the UK (Afghan Style), or why NATO has a ways to go towards integration
A couple of bits which caught the eye:
“There was a lot of traffic, like in all Afghan cities, and everyone was driving like a maniac, again like everywhere in Afghanistan. The convoy has to stay together, but this one little Corolla insisted on passing and cutting them off. This makes them nervous, and they would pass it and try to get together again. It got between the car behind us and my car (the first one) and then started tail-gaiting us to speed up (it was a part of the road where it couldn�t pass). The guy sitting next to me solved the problem by opening his window and sticking his AK-47 out.”
“We then went to the airport to meet the ISAF commander, a nice Turkish guy who showed us his guest book. Hillary Clinton signs like a 7th grader and Condoleezza Rice signed in the wrong place, crossed it out, and then signed again in the right place. We then went to the airport to meet the ISAF commander, a nice Turkish guy who showed us his guest book. Hillary Clinton signs like a 7th grader and Condoleezza Rice signed in the wrong place, crossed it out, and then signed again in the right place. Hamid Karzai has a nice signature. Condoleezza Rice had been there the day before, but I was mad at her for coming to Afghanistan. She made some PR stops just for the day, closed all of the downtown roads and in the city of Kandahar (almost always the worst place), a bomb went off where she was supposed to drive an hour alter. She wasn�t even there, but 5 passers-by were killed and 32 were injured. I hope she thinks her visit was worth it.”