Ten years after America began its war in Afghanistan, the decade can be measured by different yardsticks: Dollars. Deployments. Deaths. It can also be measured in the personal stories.
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Tara Fuerst, war widow
A decade ago, Tara Fuerst sat in her Florida high school library watching televised images of the World Trade Center ablaze. The next year, she was at boot camp with the Florida National Guard.
In 2003, she met the love of her life, Joe Fuerst, on a field exercise. She was shy, he was outgoing. She was a novice, he’d already been on active duty in Korea and Kosovo.
In March 2005, Joe and Tara became husband and wife. By July, they were in Afghanistan. Eleven months later, she stood in a morgue in Kandahar, holding her husband one final time, kissing him goodbye. She was a widow at 22.
Five years have passed, but Tara’s memories remain vivid, sometimes triggered by small things: the scent of Joe’s cologne on someone else, one of his favorite country songs.
“He’s always there,” she says. “He never leaves my mind.”
Like all newlyweds, Tara and Joe had plans: They’d already chosen baby names and bought property in a rural area north of Tampa. They’d extended their deployment so contractors could start work on their home while they were away. Tara still owns the land. “I’d never build a house on it,” she says. “Those were our dreams.”
Though they were at separate bases in Afghanistan, they talked daily and saw one another frequently.
Tara was at her computer that day, monitoring convoys and hostile activities when a message popped up on her screen: A soldier had been shot in the leg.
Then she saw the battle roster number FU8132, and she panicked: It was Joe.
She tried calling his cellphone repeatedly. No answer.
For two years, she could barely talk. She had nightmares and memory problems. She quit college, frustrated by students’ complaints about boys and car troubles. It all seemed trivial.
“At first I thought ... I’m going to date, I’m going to still have a family,” she says. “All it did was make me miserable. It’s not something that I was comfortable with. I’m in love with my husband. I’m not in love with anybody other than him and I can’t pretend that I will be. In my mind, we’re still married. ... I love him more each day.”
In 2008, Tara attended a gathering of the American Widow Project, a support group of women with similar experiences, and she began to feel better. Her connection has become so strong that she plans to eventually leave her job with a government contractor and work for the group.
“After meeting them,” she says, “I was able to say, it’s OK to laugh, it’s OK to have fun, there are days you can look ahead to ... and there’s still a future.”
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Kyle McClintock, 23, U.S. soldier
KABUL — Growing up, Pfc. Kyle McClintock hated his Mom and Dad for being Army reservists because they were gone for long stretches. His father fought during Desert Storm, and his mother served in Afghanistan.
McClintock of Rockford, Ill., is the second generation of his family to fight in Afghanistan, in what is by some measures the longest war the U.S. has fought.
“I don’t know why my life is the same as theirs, but I like it now,” he says. “Now I understand.”
Three months into his first deployment, McClintock is standing guard at an outpost on an Afghan mountain for a clear view of the Pakistani border, through which terrorists enter.
So far, combat has been restricted to the odd indirect rocket fire. “It’s a lot better than I thought it would be,” he says.
He can make the occasional call to his wife on the Internet, and he passes countless hours playing games. It’s the physical activity that’s grueling, says McClintock.
Most soldiers of the 172 Infantry Brigade are accustomed to working on and with tanks, not hiking up mountains on foot. “We climb mountains, we are like ... mountain goats. The mountains are horrible,” he says. “There is no way to describe how spent you are after missions.”
McClintock thinks his parents are proud of him, but he hasn’t decided whether to make the military his career. One thing is certain in his mind: He won’t encourage his 19-month-old son to be the next generation of soldier in the family.
“I feel like, I’m doing this so that other people don’t have to do this,” he says. “And he might feel the same way. But if he doesn’t, then that’s what I’ve done. I at least made my son not have to do this.”
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Shahira Saidy, 20, teacher
Shahira Saidy slips into her burqa, steps out of her home and climbs into a rickety white minivan. A driver takes her to a building hidden behind 10-foot walls. There, at the Afghan Canadian Community Center, she teaches English to young children and takes classes in business management.
It’s a dangerous routine for a 20-year-old woman in Kandahar, the old Taliban heartland where tribal law and ultraconservative traditions remain sacrosanct, despite the ouster of the religious militia 10 years ago.
“Every morning my mother says to me, ‘My heart is burning when you are going to the center,’ ” Saidy says with a smile. Saidy’s expression grows serious as she recalls two girls shot on their way to school. “They were going to school and they were killed, so I am also scared,” she says. “But still I am coming and trying my best that I will be able to do something.”
As the U.S. and NATO push reconciliation with the Taliban, activists worry that a pact would threaten fragile gains over the past decade, such as seats for women in parliament.
Saidy says she doesn’t know who to fear most, Taliban, tribal elders, neighbors or shopkeepers. Many in this town find it distasteful that girls or young women would pursue an education and a career.
Teachers receive threatening notes and calls, including some from neighbors who give parents lectures about not sending their girls to school.
Saidy dreams of seeing the rest of Afghanistan, then the world beyond. But she wonders about the future of her homeland. When the Taliban left, there was lots of hope, she says, but now people are killing again.
“The education is going backward again, so some of the people have lost their hope and are thinking maybe again Afghanistan has no future,” she says.
Saidy says she won’t give up on her country. Even in male-dominated Afghanistan, she imagines one day a woman could become the president. And that it could be her.
“If I became the leader of the country, first I will bring peace,” she says. “Education is important — if everyone gets education first, then they will first clean their houses, then their cities. ... Everything will be all right.”
Associated Press
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AFGHAN WAR
Cause
The United States set out to avenge the Sept. 11 attacks and topple the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies. Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan grew to include more than 130,000 troops, about 90,000 of them American. The Taliban were sheltering Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. The Taliban had come to power after a turbulent history in Afghanistan, including a 1979 invasion by the Soviet Union, which was ousted after years of guerilla warfare, then years of civil war. Fighters included bin Laden, who founded the network that would become al-Qaida. The Taliban’s brutally repressive regime was repugnant to most of the world.
Effects
The Taliban were toppled soon and an elected government headed by Hamid Karzai took office. But the Taliban re-emerged in 2006 in force, using suicide tactics copied from jihadist groups elsewhere. Signs of progress include schools with more than 6 million children enrolled, according to the United Nations. The Taliban did not let girls go to school. The media are also flourishing, with several newspapers, magazines and 10 television channels.
Costs
At least 1,700 American soldiers have died, according to an Associated Press tally. NATO has lost 954 soldiers. The Afghan National Army has suffered more than 1,500 deaths. The estimate of insurgents killed is more than 10,000. About 2,930 civilians have been killed in bombing raids by the U.S. and NATO, while 7,686 have been killed by insurgents, according to estimates from the U.N. and Human Rights Watch. The U.S. has spent more than $444 billion on the war.
The future
On June 22 President Barack Obama announced the start of the U.S. combat troop pullout, and said that despite “huge challenges” ahead, he still intends to withdraw 33,000 by next year. Violence has gone up this year with increasingly brazen attacks, and Afghanistan lacks security and good government. Widespread corruption bedevils attempts to create a viable government and institutions to take over when the U.S. and NATO leave entirely in 2014.
From news services
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