Reflections from Afghanistan

On October 7, 2001, President George Bush announced that US military operations commenced against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Nearly twenty years later on August 30, 2021, the last US military member left Afghanistan.

Several years later on May 21, 2025, I landed in Kabul International Airport. I spent one week across various regions of Afghanistan - Kabul, Baimyan, Band e Amir National Park, Ghazni, and Kandahar. Even more unusual than traveling to this country at all, I enlisted the services of a guide for the entirety of my stay. While a guide is not required, they are particularly useful for communicating, navigating Taliban security, and generally having a good feel for what’s going on around you.

There are so many layers to my time in Afghanistan. My interactions with everyday people were always warm and pleasant. On several occasions people flat out asked me what they could do to help me. Some people were a little skeptical of me being American, but they quickly came around to my friendly disposition. The children were as adorable and sweet as they are in any country.

Afghanistan is an incredibly unique country geographically, making for a one of one culture. It is most eastern country in the Middle East, with Pakistan to its eastern border. It shares a small border in the far north with China. To the west is Iran, the boundary country where the Arab world ends on the other side in Iraq. Afghans might be the most diverse looking people outside of the mixed world that is the West. One moment you feel you’re talking to a Mongolian, the next a Greek, and next a Colombian, and so on.

The landscapes were incredible - snow capped mountains, rolling green valleys, tremendous blue lakes, and harsh deserts. It was far more beautiful than I imagined.

The culture could not have been more different than my own. As the leadership of the country, the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam is what dictates the life of everyday people. The masses consider their interpretation to be the most extreme on earth, and even potentially a distortion of the truth. Who am I to say? I can’t read Arabic.

What I can say is that life there is hard. Women face restrictions that are hard to imagine: they are not allowed to socialize with men outside their family (with the exception of essential every day services), they must cover their hair, they effectively cannot work (extremely limited opportunities), they cannot attend school beyond 6th grade, they cannot have their picture shown or be filmed in public, etc. Those are the main one’s that come to mind.

Normal music is illegal.

Men cannot wear shorts. Having a shaved head is considered taboo, and therefore nearly nonexistent.

Forget all the protections of the Bill of Rights, there are none.

And the worst part is that the majority of people don’t want to live that way. I met people that listened to music, smoked weed, and expressed views that could’ve gotten them in jail.

Regardless of where people live, or what they’ve been through, I’ve saw one universal truth - we all want to be free.

Freedom was supposed to be the reason the United States went to Afghanistan all those years ago. Maybe there’s truth to the story that we went there to eliminate a terrorist breeding ground, but at the very least, we also went there to have access to their vast resources. Either way, America never had a chance at succesful conquest. The indomitable geography and fervent will of the people would’ve endured for a thousand years if that’s what it took.

The number one goal of a Taliban fighter was to die a martyr for Allah, while the number one goal of an American service member was to go home. No. Chance.

If you didn’t know any better, you would think that the US loved the Taliban. How could a country possibly leave helicopters, planes, tanks, armored personnel carriers, transport trucks, guns, rockets, grenades, intact bases, and more, if they didn’t like the people they were leaving them with? I don’t know - ask Joe Fucking Biden. The amount of American military equipment was staggering. The Taliban are in a far stronger position today than when the US invaded in 2001 - let that sink in.

Regardless, my approach with travel is to be an observer. I can vehemently disagree with practices in a country, and still gain from going there and seeing how they live. People cannot change other people - only the individual can change themself. My acceptance of that fact vastly enhanced my life.

Afghanistan’s story is still being written. I find it hard to believe that despotism will endure there indefinitely when the majority of people seek their own version of freedom. But then, that is the case with so many countries on earth - including the US. We have our own extremely dangerous issues unraveling our freedoms to deal with. Best we handle them and leave other countries to their own.

Iraq is going to be like Universal Studios in comparison.

Sincerely,

Jacob

P.S. Message me why you can’t join me in Kenya this upcoming November, and see if I can’t solve it for you. Try me.