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NATO night raids in Afghanistan must stop: Karzai
AFP via Yahoo! News - Dec 24 04:13pm
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday Afghanistan will not sign a strategic partnership deal with the US until NATO-led night raids and house searches stop.
Afghan coal mine explosion kills eleven: official
AFP via Yahoo! News - Dec 24 12:51am
An explosion at a coal mine in northern Afghanistan has killed 11 people, an official said Saturday.
U.S. military chief emphasizes "zero tolerance" for bullying in forces
WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey has emphasized "zero tolerance" for bullying in the armed forces, after eight U.S. soldiers were charged with hazing that led to the death of a fellow Chinese- American soldier in Afghanistan, the American Forces Press Service reported Friday.
Former Pakistan Army Chief Reveals Intelligence Bureau Harbored Bin Laden in Abbottabad
Pakistani Politics and Economy By Arif Jamal December 22, 2011
In spite of denials by the Pakistani military, evidence is emerging that elements within the Pakistani military harbored Osama bin Laden with the knowledge of former army chief General Pervez Musharraf and possibly current Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. Former Pakistani Army Chief General Ziauddin Butt
Report: CIA Suspends Drone Attacks in Pakistan
VOA News December 24, 2011
A prominent U.S. newspaper says the Central Intelligence Agency has suspended drone strikes targeting low-ranking militants in Pakistan in an effort to mend badly frayed relations with the South Asian nation.
NATO helicopter makes forced landing in Afghanistan after taking ground fire
By Associated Press, December 24
KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO says one of its helicopters has made a forced landing in southern Afghanistan after taking ground fire.
Pakistan Welcomes Renunciation of Any Coup Plans
VOA News December 24, 2011
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is welcoming comments from his military chief ruling out the possibility of a coup.
Search for 100 real-life heroes: from bullet-ridden Kabul to a Rio favela
Indian journalist Tithiya Sharma visits 45 countries over two years to find local unsung champions
Guardian.co.uk ByKate Hodal and Tom Phillips Friday 23 December 2011
Rio de Janeiro - Heroes are normally the stuff of mythology. But for Tithiya Sharma, whose journey to find them has taken 18 months, consumed three passports and spanned 32 countries across five continents, heroes are part of everyday life.
Afghanistan kicks off its first rugby tournament
By Joe Sinclair | AFP – Thu, Dec 22, 2011.
Afghanistan kicked off its first official rugby tournament on Friday, with organisers hoping the game will one day be as popular as buzkashi, a kind of polo played with the carcass of a headless goat.
Marines Say Afghanistan Forever Changed Their Lives
NPR By Catherine Welch December 23, 2011
Daron Diepenbruck and Josh Apsey were members of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment — called "America's Battalion." NPR followed that battalion in 2009, on the homefront and in battle in Afghanistan. The two Marines are back home now. One left the military; the other stayed in. Their lives have changed dramatically, as Catherine Welch found out.
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NATO night raids in Afghanistan must stop: Karzai
AFP via Yahoo! News - Dec 24 04:13pm
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday Afghanistan will not sign a strategic partnership deal with the US until NATO-led night raids and house searches stop.
The president's remarks came after he heard back from a government-appointed delegation assigned to look into civilian casualties sustained during recent NATO airstrikes and night time raids.
"The president stressed that the strategic partnership document will not be signed until the night raids and house searches stop," his office said in a statement.
"After hearing the report by the delegation, the president said that the arbitrary operations and house searches by NATO have become a serious problem between Afghanistan and NATO forces and that this has been one of the main obstacles on signing the strategic partnership deal with the United States."
The strategic partnership document being negotiated with Washington will govern the relationship between American troops and the Afghan government after the scheduled withdrawal of combat troops in 2014.
Night raids have been a persistent sticking point, but Karzai's refusal to sign until the operations end is his bluntest yet.
NATO has defended the operations as the safest way of targeting insurgent leaders, insisting they will continue but with the increasing involvement of Afghan special forces.
It insists that in 85 percent of night raids no shot is fired and they cause less than one percent of civilian casualties.
But Karzai has led public criticism of the controversial raids, saying they endanger lives and harass local communities, and repeatedly called on US-led international forces to stop entering Afghan homes.
The delegation appointed by Karzai investigated NATO airstrikes in Kandahar and Kapisa provinces in which several civilians died, and also a raid in Paktia in which the pregnant wife of the provincial anti-drugs chief was killed.
Lead investigator Mohammad Tahir Safi said: "We want civilian casualties to stop. We cannot tolerate any more.
"NATO-led ISAF forces have killed Afghan civilians for no reason."
According to the United Nations, the number of civilians killed in violence in Afghanistan rose by 15 percent in the first six months of this year to 1,462, with insurgents blamed for 80 percent of the killings.
There are around 140,000 international troops in Afghanistan fighting a decade-long Taliban insurgency alongside Afghan government forces.
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Afghan coal mine explosion kills eleven: official
AFP via Yahoo! News - Dec 24 12:51am
An explosion at a coal mine in northern Afghanistan has killed 11 people, an official said Saturday.
The miners, who were all working at the site without government permission, died after an explosion triggered a collapse at the mine in Baghlan province on Friday night, said the provincial governor's spokesman Mahmood Haqmal.
"Late on Friday a number of local people were digging at a coal mine in the Chenarak area of Nehrin district when an explosion killed 11 workers," he said.
Police are at the scene working to recover the bodies.
Conditions in Afghan coal mines can be dangerously primitive, with miners working by hand and little in the way of ventilation, equipment or safety gear.
Afghanistan is believed to have mineral reserves worth as much as $3 trillion which could theoretically generate billions of dollars in tax revenue for the troubled country.
But exploitation of these resources faces massive hurdles due to ongoing instability after 30 years of war in the country, woeful infrastructure, and endemic corruption.
Nevertheless, mining lots are being quickly parcelled out among Afghanistan's resource-hungry neighbours, and according to mining ministry documents the country is planning to sell extraction rights for up to five mines every year until the departure of the last foreign combat troops in 2014.
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U.S. military chief emphasizes "zero tolerance" for bullying in forces
WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey has emphasized "zero tolerance" for bullying in the armed forces, after eight U.S. soldiers were charged with hazing that led to the death of a fellow Chinese- American soldier in Afghanistan, the American Forces Press Service reported Friday.
Writing in a posting on his Facebook site and Twitter account, Dempsey stressed that bullying and hazing "undermine everything the military stands for," adding that every member of the armed forces has a personal responsibility to uphold its "zero tolerance " standard and should intervene to stop any such occurrences.
"We are currently investigating several allegations of hazing within our ranks," Dempsey said in the posting.
Dempsey posted the message after the U.S. Army charged on Wednesday eight soldiers for being allegedly involved in the death of Army Pvt. Danny Chen, a Chinese-American from the Chinatown in New York.
Chen, deployed to southern Afghanistan in August with the 25th Infantry Division, was found dead on Oct. 3 in a guard tower from "an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound," army investigators said.
"These appear to be isolated instances of misconduct, but I want to be very clear: hazing is simply intolerable," Dempsey said in his message. "It undermines our values, tarnishes our profession and erodes the trust that bonds us."
"Every service member should be aware that participating in hazing or even observing it without reporting it are both wrong. We are duty-bound to protect one another from hazing in any form," Dempsey added.
The death of Chen shocked New York's Asian-American communities, which strongly urged the U.S. military to launch a thorough investigation into the incident.
U.S. military official revealed to Chen's family that he had been subjected to physical abuse and ethnic slurs by his superiors, who dragged him one night out of bed and across the floor when he failed to turn off a water heater after showering.
This is the second such incident in the past year after the suicide of another Chinese-American soldier Harry Lew, a Marine from California, who killed himself in April in Afghanistan. Investigators found that Lew was subjected to a brutal hazing by his fellow Marines, three of whom were ordered court-martialed in October.
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Former Pakistan Army Chief Reveals Intelligence Bureau Harbored Bin Laden in Abbottabad
Pakistani Politics and Economy By Arif Jamal December 22, 2011
In spite of denials by the Pakistani military, evidence is emerging that elements within the Pakistani military harbored Osama bin Laden with the knowledge of former army chief General Pervez Musharraf and possibly current Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. Former Pakistani Army Chief General Ziauddin Butt (a.k.a. General Ziauddin Khawaja) revealed at a conference on Pakistani-U.S. relations in October 2011 that according to his knowledge the then former Director-General of Intelligence Bureau of Pakistan (2004 – 2008), Brigadier Ijaz Shah (Retd.), had kept Osama bin Laden in an Intelligence Bureau safe house in Abbottabad. In the same address, he revealed that the ISI had helped the CIA to track him down and kill on May 1. The revelation remained unreported for some time because some intelligence officers had asked journalists to refrain from publishing General Butt’s remarks. [1] No mention of the charges appeared until right-wing columnist Altaf Hassan Qureshi referred to them in an Urdu-language article that appeared on December 8. [2]
In a subsequent and revealing Urdu-language interview with TV channel Dawn News, General Butt repeated the allegation on December 11, saying he fully believed that “[Brigadier] Ijaz Shah had kept this man [Bin Laden in the Abbottabad compound] with the full knowledge of General Pervez Musharraf Ijaz Shah was an all-powerful official in the government of General Musharraf.” [3] Asked whether General Kayani knew of this, he first said yes, but later reconsidered: “[Kayani] may have known – I do not know – he might not have known.” [4] The general’s remarks appeared to confirm investigations by this author in May 2011 that showed that the Abbottabad compound where bin Laden was captured and killed was being used by a Pakistani intelligence agency (see Terrorism Monitor, May 5). However, General Butt failed to explain why Bin Laden was not discovered even after Brigadier Shah and General Musharraf had left the government.
General Butt was the first head of the Strategic Plans Division of the Pakistan army and the Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) under Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1990 to 1993, and again from 1997 to 1999. Sharif promoted General Ziauddin Butt to COAS after forcibly retiring General Pervez Musharraf on October 12, 1999, but the army’s top brass revolted against the decision and arrested both Prime Minister Sharif and General Butt while installing Musharraf as the nation’s new chief executive, a post he kept as a chief U.S. ally until resigning in 2008 in the face of an impending impeachment procedure.
Brigadier Shah has been known or is alleged to have been involved in several high profile cases of terrorism. The Brigadier was heading the ISI bureau in Lahore when General Musharraf overthrew Prime Minister Sharif in October 1999. Later, General Musharraf appointed Shah as Home Secretary in Punjab. As an ISI officer he was also the handler for Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was involved in the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. [5] Omar Saeed Sheikh surrendered to Brigadier Shah who hid him for several weeks before turning him over to authorities. In February 2004, Musharraf appointed Shah as the new Director of the Intelligence Bureau, a post he kept until March 2008 (Daily Times [Lahore] February 26, 2004; Dawn [Karachi] March 18, 2008). The late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto accused Brigadier Shah, among others, of hatching a conspiracy to assassinate her (The Friday Times [Lahore], February 18-24).
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistani top military brass had serious differences on several issues. One of the most serious of these concerned Pakistan’s relations with Osama bin Laden. However, the disastrous1999 Kargil conflict in Kashmir overshadowed all of these. General Butt says that Prime Minister Sharif had decided to cooperate with the United States and track down Bin Laden in 1999. [6] According to a senior adviser to the Prime Minister, the general staff ousted Sharif to scuttle the “get-Osama” plan, among other reasons: “The evidence is that the military regime abandoned that plan.” [7] General Butt corroborates this. In his latest interview, he says that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had constituted a special task force of 90 American-trained commandos to track down Bin Laden in Afghanistan. If the Sharif government had continued on this course, this force would likely have caught Bin Laden by December 2001, but the plan was aborted by Ziauddin Butt’s successor as ISI general director, Lieutenant General Mahmud Ahmed. [8]
A
rif Jamal is an independent security and terrorism expert and author of “Shadow War – The Untold Story of Jihad in Kashmir.”
Notes:
1. Author’s telephone interview with an Islamabad journalist who requested anonymity, November 16, 2011.
2. Altaf Hassan Qureshi, “Resetting Pak-U.S. relations” (in Urdu), Jang [Rawalpindi], December 8, 2011. Available at http://e.jang.com.pk/pic.asp?npic=12-08-2011/Pindi/images/06_08.gif
3. See “Government – Army - America on Dawn News – 11the Dec 2011 part 2,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4bYHC2_ito&feature=youtu.be
4. Ibid
5. Author’s interview with a security officer who requested anonymity, Islamabad, May 2000.
6. “Government – Army - America on Dawn News –December 11, 2011, part 1,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4WLtaxxPPw.
7. Author’s interview with a former government minister who requested anonymity, Rawalpindi, February 2006.
8. “Government – Army - America on Dawn News –December 11, 2011, part 1,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4WLtaxxPPw.
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Report: CIA Suspends Drone Attacks in Pakistan
VOA News December 24, 2011
A prominent U.S. newspaper says the Central Intelligence Agency has suspended drone strikes targeting low-ranking militants in Pakistan in an effort to mend badly frayed relations with the South Asian nation.
The Los Angeles Times Friday quoted unnamed U.S. officials who say the CIA's “undeclared halt” in attacks is aimed at reversing a “sharp erosion of trust” between the two countries, following a series of deadly incidents, including a NATO attack in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
The newspaper says the six-week pause comes amid an “intensifying debate” in U.S. President Barack Obama's administration about the future of the CIA's drone operation in Pakistan. The report says drone strikes have killed dozens of of al-Qaida operatives and hundreds of low-ranking fighters since 2004, but they have also infuriated many Pakistanis.
The Los Angeles Times quotes State Department and National Security Council officials who say the airstrikes are “counterproductive,” because rank-and-file militants who are killed are easy to replace. The paper says Pakistani claims of civilian casualties, which the United States disputes, have “destabilized” the government of President Asif Ali Zardari, a U.S. ally.
The newspaper says some intelligence officials are urging the CIA to “cut back” its paramilitary role to refocus on espionage. The newspaper says the officials have suggested handing the drone mission over to the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command, which flies its own drones and conducts secret counter-terrorism operations in Yemen and Somalia.
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NATO helicopter makes forced landing in Afghanistan after taking ground fire
By Associated Press, December 24
KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO says one of its helicopters has made a forced landing in southern Afghanistan after taking ground fire.
A statement says crew members were unharmed in Saturday’s incident in Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand province. The chopper was later transported to a coalition base. It did not identify the exact type of aircraft or say to which country’s military it belonged.
The coalition relies heavily on helicopters to avoid using roads that are frequently mined by the insurgents.
The Taliban have few dedicated anti-aircraft weapons, but they have destroyed or damaged dozens of planes using automatic rifles and other infantry weapons. In August, the guerrillas shot down a U.S. Chinook transport, killing 30 U.S. special operation troops, a translator and seven Afghan commandos.
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Pakistan Welcomes Renunciation of Any Coup Plans
VOA News December 24, 2011
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is welcoming comments from his military chief ruling out the possibility of a coup.
General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said Friday that speculation about a possible military takeover of the civilian government is “misleading.” He said such reports are being used to divert attention from “real issues,” and pledged that the army will continue to support the democratic process in the country.
The prime minister told reporters Saturday that General Kayani's statement is “extremely well taken by democratic circles in the country” and will bring “improvement.”
Mr. Gilani spoke following a Christmas address at a church in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. His government is facing faces mounting criticism over a secret memo, sent months ago, appealing for U.S. help to prevent a feared military coup.
Pakistan's Supreme Court is deliberating whether to order an investigation of the memo. It was allegedly sent in May by a member of President Asif Ali Zardari's office, asking for U.S. military assistance to thwart a possible coup by the country's powerful military and intelligence services following the covert U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on Friday also moved to allay fears about a possible coup, saying a military takeover os out of the question.
The existence of the memo came to light in October, when Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz wrote a column in the Financial Times newspaper accusing Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., Hussain Haqqani, of writing the memo and asking for it to be delivered to Admiral Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military official at the time. Haqqani was subsequently forced to resign.
Prime Minister Gilani and President Zardari have faced increasing pressure to resign over the memo scandal.
Mr. Gilani has insisted the military must operate under the control of the civilian government. He said Thursday there cannot be “a state within the state,” and that all of Pakistan's institutions are “answerable to this parliament.”
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Search for 100 real-life heroes: from bullet-ridden Kabul to a Rio favela
Indian journalist Tithiya Sharma visits 45 countries over two years to find local unsung champions
Guardian.co.uk ByKate Hodal and Tom Phillips Friday 23 December 2011
Rio de Janeiro - Heroes are normally the stuff of mythology. But for Tithiya Sharma, whose journey to find them has taken 18 months, consumed three passports and spanned 32 countries across five continents, heroes are part of everyday life.
From prostitutes in Thailand to feminists in Israel and doctors in Congo, Sharma has spent the past year looking for 100 inspirational figureheads, community leaders and social workers.
The only requirement? That each of these heroes is changing the future of their countries, from the clean boulevards of the west to the most under-privileged and conflict-ridden corners of the developing world.
Calling her quest the 100 Heroes Project, the New Delhi-born former journalist left the newsrooms of Mumbai, formerly Bombay, in May 2010 and just this month touched down in South America, on one of the final legs of her global tour.
"I'd become so used to being a journalist in India, making really good money, renting a fancy apartment in the most expensive part of Bombay, going to the same pub every weekend," says Sharma, 29, en route to meet her latest hero in Rio de Janeiro's notorious City of God favela.
"It was such an easy trap to fall into and I knew that if I was going to make a change it had to be something really drastic. So I quit my job, sold all my stuff, moved back in with my parents and decided I wanted to do this."
"This" means navigating her way alone through some of the world's trickiest corners, from the bullet-studded streets of Kabul to safe houses for rape victims in Kinshasa, often with little more than a scrap of paper and some scribbled notes as her guide.
Sharma has no set criteria for her heroes, whom she finds by using internet search engines and then relying on local contacts to determine the area's most pressing issues.
"What makes a hero, anyway? Is it that you're helping 1,000 people or two people?" she asks. "If you help the life of one single person but in a really meaningful way, I think you're a hero."
Sharma's latest find – number "70-something," she says – is 50-year-old social worker Maria do Socorro Melo Brandão, a favela-born but university-educated psychiatrist who now runs City of God's Seed of Life Association.
The community group works with local job-seekers and offers extra-curriculum activities to children and teens.
As Brandão describes her work providing counselling to slum residents, Sharma underlines the effect just one individual can have on the rest of the world. "All it takes is that one person who takes it upon themselves to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together, to inspire, to bring people together, that one person who doesn't give up," she says.
"Sometimes it's just about deconstructing the way people think. One amazing idea can disrupt the thinking of an entire community or country."
Determined to use "social media for social good", Sharma is raising money and awareness for the heroes she finds, using her journalistic background to blog, tweet and publish articles about her experiences.
Donors have been impressed: while she has paid for her trip primarily through personal savings, Indian travel site MakeMyTrip has funded all her flights — its chief marketing officer, Mohit Gupta, says he was inspired by Sharma's drive to "learn and imbibe the best the world has to offer".
Sharma admits that travelling solo has proven difficult at times – "I've been attacked, molested, robbed and duped," she says – but such experiences have only strengthened her resolve.
"Everywhere I travel, I do so through the eyes of a woman, and in most situations I feel violated or wronged, or unhappy or disconcerted, by what I see around me," she says.
"I now know I want to work in a women's rights organisation, with and for radical feminists, the radical [female heroes] in society who are clawing every day to create a new normal."
By the end of her two-year odyssey, Sharma will have seen the Northern Lights, churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia, and the pyramids of Egypt, crossed 45 countries over six continents, and found well over 100 heroes.
But only one thing will stand out, she says. "After time, every church starts looking the same. What I will remember most about this trip is the people — the undiluted love, welcoming and hospitality that I've experienced everywhere I've gone.
"It's a reminder of how lucky I am, how fortunate and privileged to be here and now and having this experience. To be able to bear witness. I could do this for the rest of my life." Six of the best
Sonja Kruse The 32-year-old "Ubuntu Girl" spent a year travelling through her native South Africa with nothing but a backpack, camera and 100 rand (£7.75) to prove that ubuntu — an African concept meaning ''I am only because you are'' — is alive and well. She is writing a book about her experiences. www.theubuntugirl.co.za
Yamam Nabeel Iraqi-born, London-based Nabeel started FC Unity to bring together people from different social, religious and ethnic backgrounds through football, and teach them to work as a team. Since its founding in 2006, the charity has created football-based education and development programmes in Iraq, Sudan, England and Ghana. www.fcunity.com
Mahfuza Folad From an office above a Kabul cookie shop, Folad serves as executive director of Justice for All Organisation, which offers pro-bono advice and representation to Afghan women and lobbies for women's and children's rights. Folad is also a judge in the Kabul primary court. www.jfao.org
Dr Jo and Lyn Lusi The husband and wife co-founded HEAL Africa, which provides medical and social care for women in Congo, where 400,000 rapes are reported every year. Their charity heads one of Congo's three full-service hospitals and provides community-based initiatives such as safe houses and remote clinics, microlending schemes and law-training programmes. www.healafrica.org
Felicite Rwemalika The founder of the Association of Kigali Women in Sports, Rwemalika started Rwanda's first women's sports federation in 2001 to give young Hutu and Tutsi girls a chance to find reconciliation in post-conflict Rwanda. Her organisation also promotes women's rights and teaches reproductive health and economic empowerment. www.akwos.com
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Afghanistan kicks off its first rugby tournament
By Joe Sinclair | AFP – Thu, Dec 22, 2011.
Afghanistan kicked off its first official rugby tournament on Friday, with organisers hoping the game will one day be as popular as buzkashi, a kind of polo played with the carcass of a headless goat.
Cricket and football have already gained a strong following, and regional sporting success has offered a rare glimmer of hope in the war-wracked country.
But enthusiasts believe Afghans, who have faced decades of conflict and hardship, are even better suited to the rough and tumble of the rugby field, which is more akin the national sport buzkashi, without the need for horses.
Ten teams from four different provinces gathered in central Kabul for the sevens competition, the first since the Afghan Rugby Federation won affiliation from the Asian Rugby Football Union last month.
"It's becoming popular and soon it will replace cricket and football," said Asad Ziar, the ARF's chief executive officer.
"We're a rough, tough people. We're physically set for this game, which is very energetic and fast.
"It's the new buzkashi. Our people love that game -- but we can't afford to buy a horse for every player."
With just 220 players registered with the ARF, rugby has a long way to go before it can claim to be anywhere near as popular as buzkashi, football or cricket.
A small group of onlookers stood on the sidelines Friday, many watching the rugby for the first time.
"What's the name of this game? Why is the ball shaped like that? Why is the goal so high?" asked 15-year-old Abdul Rassol.
"I like this game, it's fantastic. But where is the goal keeper?"
The UK embassy is sponsoring the two-day tournament and the players were confident that -- given the right support -- rugby can take off.
"Afghans love war, that's why they love rugby. The Afghan people are not scared," said Mohammad Edris, 25, a dentist from Kabul.
"But if we are going to be successful we need support."
Taking a break from refereeing, Steve Brooking, 47, from Bristol, England, said finding coaches who understand the game is one of the difficulties.
"But rugby has already captured the imagination," said Brooking, who works for the United Nations and is a technical advisor to the ARF, which only started up in June.
"The Afghans are big and strong and fit. They're not afraid of physical contact."
Under the Taliban, who ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, sport was highly restricted.
But Afghanistan's national sports teams have experienced some success, and rugby will face strong competition from football and cricket.
The country's football team recently reached the South Asian Football Federation finals, losing to India 4-0. And Afghanistan won the Asia Cricket Council T20 Cup in Nepal.
At the Chaman Huzuri ground in Kabul, football was being played on all but one of the dozen or more pitches.
And even the competing rugby teams were kitted out in the football shirts of popular national and club football teams.
"Rugby needs a lot of power. I thought this is a sport I can play," said Mohammad Yaman Nazary, 23, his huge frame barely fitting into his Brazilian football shirt.
"We want rugby to be more popular than football and for our team to beat the neighbouring countries.
"We want to show the Afghan people that we can be heroes in sport."
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Marines Say Afghanistan Forever Changed Their Lives
NPR By Catherine Welch December 23, 2011
Daron Diepenbruck and Josh Apsey were members of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment — called "America's Battalion." NPR followed that battalion in 2009, on the homefront and in battle in Afghanistan. The two Marines are back home now. One left the military; the other stayed in. Their lives have changed dramatically, as Catherine Welch found out.
Daron Diepenbruck was on his last deployment when something happened that changed his life. One of his good friends was out on patrol.
"He was actually on the corner of the building and got hit by an IED," or improvised explosive device, Diepenbruck says.
He heard the blast on his radio. His friend had been killed.
Two weeks passed, and Diepenbruck's platoon set up camp in the same building where his friend died. They arrived at night. When the sun came up, he saw where it happened.
"There was a hole where he got hit, and there was still blood on the ground," he says.
There was a lot of blood and debris. He found scraps of his friend's flak jacket. It was a mess.
"The first couple of times when you pass by it, you just kind of sit there for what might be 15 seconds, 30 seconds, a minute and a half, and you just kind of stare at it and you're like, 'Wow. That's the spot,' " he says.
That was more than two years ago. As it turned out, it was Diepenbruck's last tour to Afghanistan. Now he's half a world away, back in his hometown of Bowling Green, Ohio.
He still has a military haircut, but he sports a soul patch on his chin, wears ripped jeans and cowboy boots, and his arms are loaded with tattoos. His left forearm is covered with the helmet, rifle and boots to honor those who have died on the battlefield. It's mostly for his friends. He has lost so many that he has to stop and count.
"It'd be 13, 14, and then I've had a couple of friends in the Army that have passed. I'd probably put at about 22, 23," he says.
All of those deaths weigh on him, but seeing the spot where his friend died — that's what changed him.
"I have nightmares quite a bit. I mean, I'll go through like five or six, and I'll just wake up and stay up because I know I'm not going to be able to get to sleep that night," Diepenbruck says.
Lingering Anger
He says when he got out of the Marines and moved in with his parents, his temper kicked in. His parents got the brunt of it.
"When I was living at home, that was one of the main reasons I wanted to move out, because we were fighting almost every day," Diepenbruck says. "They'd say something to me, and it would automatically spark me up, and then I went with it ... nothing physical, fortunately."
So he got his own place. Diepenbruck also used to love painting, sculpture and pottery. Now he says he can't focus long enough to draw a simple chair. His dream before the Marine Corps was to become an art teacher. That's gone.
"Honestly, I don't think I have the patience for it anymore. With my temper being the way it is, I kind of get a little edgy at times, and I don't know how well that would work," he says.
To keep busy, Diepenbruck is taking some college courses at Bowling Green University. But his old life still intrudes. He was in class one day when he learned a Marine buddy had lost a leg in Afghanistan.
"I actually got a text message from my buddy. I pulled out my phone, looked at it," he says. "I ... just stopped for a second, just looked up and ... looked around. My teacher actually walked over to me, and he was like, 'Are you all right?' "
'I Miss The Combat'
Actually, Diepenbruck is not sure he's all right. He thinks he's suffering from post-traumatic stress. He is not getting treatment. He was told he needs anti-depressants, but they're expensive and he doesn't have insurance.
He wants to see if the government will recognize his trauma as a disability. In the meantime, he's piecing together his own therapy. He talks a lot about what happened with his friends who either were in the military or are still in the military.
When asked how he is dealing with things, he says alcohol helps. When he's not in class, he sits at the bar across the street from campus. He's there most weekends, too, watching football.
He has a girlfriend, but his closest friends, the ones he hung out with every night, are still in the Marines.
Even though he lost more than 20 friends and is no longer the person he was when he enlisted, Diepenbruck says he sometimes wishes he could be back on the battlefield.
"Honestly, I miss the combat, I miss all the guys. I miss being a part of something bigger, something there that's changing the world," he says.
Sept. 11 Inspired Service
There's another Marine from America's Battalion who also signed up to be a part of something bigger. His name is Josh Apsey.
When he first spoke to NPR back in 2009, he was a teenager. He was waiting to get on a plane for his first deployment to Afghanistan.
"My mother, she got me a journal and inserted a few pictures in there, and she's written me a few letters. And then I have pictures of my girlfriend and letters from her, as well. And then I have a Bible that I keep all that in right now," he said.
Apsey was just a boy on Sept. 11, 2001, but it inspired him to join the Marines.
His first deployment was a personal mission, as he put it, to face the evil that brought down the twin towers.
By his second deployment earlier this year, the romanticism of a noble cause was gone. What was left was the need to survive.
"My position was changed. I was in charge of Marines, and I had to make sure they were all right," he says. "I really understood, I was like, 'Wow, I could very well have died like so many other Marines did.' There was real danger there."
Ultimately About Money
During this second deployment, Apsey had to decide whether he would re-enlist. Before the deployment, he thought for sure he'd get out. But Apsey had a lot of time in Afghanistan to think about his future.
"I got real with the situation, and I said, OK, if I got out, what am I going to do? What am I going to do for money? What are the things I need to pay for?" he says.
So he did re-enlist. He was 21 years old and just married. At the end of the day, it came down to a paycheck.
Now a corporal, he gets up early every morning and checks in at the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia, where he shows new officers how to fire a mortar.
Most days he's home by noon.
Home is an old farmhouse where he lives with his wife and their two dogs. It's tucked away in a rural area at the end of a dirt road. They just moved in, don't know their neighbors and don't have any friends yet. There's not much to do but hang around the house.
"I have my gear in here, my uniform stuff, a futon if we have guests, and then I have my video games, all my DVDs," he says.
He has a room where he slinks off after work to play video games. He has covered the only window with an Afghan flag, keeping things dark. The flag is a souvenir from his earlier deployments, part of that time in his life when he felt that what he did was important.
Something Has Changed
He doesn't know if it's the abrupt transition from combat in Afghanistan to the routine of job and family that has changed him — but something has.
"Sometimes I just feel like I'm a robot, I'm just going through all the motions but I'm not mentally and emotionally there, he says.
He has noticed that he's lost the ability to care.
"I understand when things are sad, and I know they're sad, and I'm sad for them," he says, "but I can't really break down and cry about it. I can't really grasp situations and react the way I should."
It frustrates him that he can't put his finger on why he's changed so much from the idealistic 18-year-old who went off to war not so long ago.
Apsey is getting counseling through the Marines, and his mother says she thinks it's working. He's home visiting for the holidays, and she says she can definitely see that he's improving.
In 2009, when Diepenbruck and Apsey were off in Afghanistan, all their parents wanted was for them to come home safe. Now that they have some perspective, they realize that the sons they sent off to war did not come back as the same people. The war changed them.
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