United States
During the ten and a half years that Americans have been fighting in Afghanistan, as tens of thousands of troops have rotated in and out of the combat zone, only one soldier has ever been captured by the Taliban. His name is Bowe Bergdahl, and since June 30, 2009, he has been America’s last living Prisoner of War.
Bowe Bergdahl grew up on a dirt road that winds through a narrow river valley a few miles outside of town of Hailey, Idaho. The town of about 8,000 guards the highway to the ski resorts of Sun Valley where billionaires and movie stars spend their ski vacations. Bowe’s mother, Jani, home schooled him and his older sister, and Bowe spent years studying martial arts and fencing, becoming particularly accomplished at the epée. After a period of wandering, Bowe joined the Army at age 22, and soon after completing his training shipped out for Afghanistan. “He saw Afghanistan as a humanitarian mission,” Bowe’s father Bob says. “It was the highest ground for an American soldier.”
Source: TIME
Afghanistan
“Patrols are a dangerous part of the war in Afghanistan, and in the Arghandab Valley during the summer of 2010 they were particularly punishing. It was during the surge of U.S. troops and the violence was edging higher. I had arranged to photograph a series of portraits of Afghan National Army soldiers at the end of a joint patrol with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne. The platoon was tired and many of them wore expressions that showed the strain of the days.Yet the face of this one soldier, Ghulam Hidar, stood out: the distant stare of a young man who has seen nothing in his life but conflict.
To me, the intensity of his face captures the nervousness and fear of a war that has gone on much longer than the past decade. I am moved by his stare and often even disturbed by it. In his eyes I see something that anyone exposed to this war has felt so many times before.” - Kevin Frayer
July 2010, From Afghanistan: The Photographs That Moved Them Most
Source: TIME
Afghanistan
“A young girl soon after dawn in the village of Ghulam Ali on the Shamali Plain. Fighting between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban, along with massive US air strikes, made the plain a critically dangerous place to live.
This image—or maybe this girl—always makes me ask: Who are you? Are you still alive? What are you doing now, 10 years later? Do you still live in Afghanistan? Do you still live in your village on the Shamali Plain, north of Kabul? Are you married? Have you ever seen this photograph? Would you let me photograph you now?” - Seamus Murphy
November 2001, From Afghanistan: The Photographs That Moved Them Most
Source: TIME
United States
A member of the Andrew Sisters-styled group The Liberty Belles plants a kiss on the cheek of Pearl Harbor survivor Evan Brasset at a ceremony observing the 70th anniversary of the attack, Dec. 7 at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.
Gerald Herbert/AP
Source: MSNBC
Macedonia
“Albanian girl living in Recica Macedonia. I visited Macedonia when it was a powderkeg. Tension was high between the Slavic Macedonians and the Albanian Macedonians. This young girl didn’t have much of a future in front of her. But she was so hauntingly beautiful. She had a purity and innocence that contrasted with her environment.” - Lauras Eyes
Source: flickr.com
Bagram, Afghanistan
Boys playing with toy guns run into a village alley.
UN Photo/Eric Kanalstein
I took a photo similar to this once. I find it incredibly ironic and sad the way that children - whether in peaceful, previously war ridden countries, or countries at war - play war. Why? Why is it that they find playing war of all things, fun?
This is why I take it upon myself to stop them. Have them play with kittens or something …
Source: Flickr / un_photo
