I designed my Battalion Coin when I was a machine gunner in Kandahar. It looks a bit like the Northern Ireland Murals, but I think in the context of the war in Afghanistan I was more like a British soldier in Ireland than an Irish Republican. The coin says "One way or the other," in Latin.
The little white building is a monument in the center of Kandahar city where the British opened up their guns on the Afghanis. At least that is what I was told. I have seen the building, but being unable to read Pashto stopped me from really knowing.
When I was there I was really hateful, and I feel bad about it now. I was scared at the time. I just wanted to come home and be with my wife. Roadside explosions were common.
I made these drawings of Afghani soldiers out on patrol with us, they were friendly.
In retrospect I really liked the Afghanis. I have a fantasy about working as a professor of drawing in Kabul or Kandahar. I don't know if that would work with Sharia though, because Islamic law forbids representations of people.
wikipedia about Kandahar, click here.
Kandahar was founded by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.
3 comments:
That's an interesting juxaposition, the commentary on first Belfast then Kandahar.
Both are troubled crossroads with many centuries of war as their primary history.
Maybe Afghanistan can rise above their 'troubles' and build the same kind of coalition and future filled with hope that has been built in today's Ireland.
The pics I know you have of the Afghani people are fascinating - you should post more of them.
Love, Dad
i'm not a fighter but i have alot of fight in me.
i like what you said about the peoples.
the coin is stellar. the bird look familiar.
Belfast and Kandahar. I didn't really associate the two consciously, but when I do it makes the Afghanis more sympathetic.
I guess the drug trafficing, and also the fundamentalist terrorists that have a global agenda are what makes the war necessary. Most of the Afghanis are normal people in that they are just trying to live. And besides almost all the Taliban live across the border in Pakistan in Peshawar.
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