{"id":4129,"date":"2015-08-23T15:31:58","date_gmt":"2015-08-23T22:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=4129"},"modified":"2015-08-23T15:33:17","modified_gmt":"2015-08-23T22:33:17","slug":"afghanistan-where-it-all-began","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=4129","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan-Where It All Began"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Riding<\/a>

Riding atop a lorry packed with donated grains as we make our way back to Taloqan after it had fallen out of Taliban control. These IDPs were so eager to return home from the camps around Khawaja Bahauddin. \u00a92001 Derek Henry Flood<\/p><\/div>\n

New York-\u00a0<\/strong>I spent a fascinating week down in central South Carolina at Shaw AFB lecturing on the socio-political and religio-cultural dynamics of the Levant. Within the sessions discussing the current state of affairs in the Arab and Kurdish world, it was impossible not to look back on Afghanistan in order to understand where we are today. \u00a0I don’t have time to do a full on blog post but the talk at USARCENT had me wanting to quickly look at my archives.<\/p>\n

I will never forget this time. It was my first experience in a full scale war. That stays with you forever.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A pair of Chinook helicopters take off at sunset in Khwaja Bahauddin in November 2001. \u00a92001 Derek henry Flood<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A Jamiat-e-Islami radio may on a hill outside Konduz. \u00a92001 Derek Henry Flood<\/p><\/div>\n

\"An<\/a>

An American soldiers stands at dusk among a crowd of IDPs and Jamiat supporters on a USAID escort mission. At the beginning, the war in Afghanistan had the feel of armed humanitarianism. \u00a92001 Derek henry Flood<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York-\u00a0I spent a fascinating week down in central South Carolina at Shaw AFB lecturing on the socio-political and religio-cultural dynamics of the Levant. Within the sessions discussing the current state of affairs in the Arab and Kurdish world, it…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan"],"yoast_head":"\nAfghanistan-Where It All Began - The War Diaries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=4129\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Afghanistan-Where It All Began - The War Diaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New York-\u00a0I spent a fascinating week down in central South Carolina at Shaw AFB lecturing on the socio-political and religio-cultural dynamics of the Levant. 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