Embedded journalism from the front lines of
Afghanistan & Iraq ~ by Mike & Carlos Boettcher

People often call the conflict in Afghanistan “The Forgotten War,” a broad statement that misses the point on why the going has been so slow, 8 years this October, and why, until recently, there has been little spoken of it. Afghanistan was not forgotten so much as poorly-remembered; picked up and dusted off whenever pundits and politicians saw use in it: whether to compare it to its brother-war in Iraq,  held up as an example of International Cooperation, or used as a simple prop by those in need of a beacon of “success” in the region.…

Flat on their bellies with no cover and mortars raining down on them, two Oklahomans, Sergeant Shane Ayres and Staff Sergeant Tyler Mobra, looked at each other and communicated an unspoken message, “What the hell are we doing here.”

It was October 31, 2008 and Combat Outpost Lowell, Nuristan, Afghanistan was under attack again. Lowell is the most attacked U.S. base in Afghanistan and on Halloween day, Afghan insurgents treated the scouts of 6/4 Cavalry, Ft. Hood, Texas, with a barrage of mortars.…

The village of Kamu is only a brief walk from COP Lowell, and every month a MEDCAP mission is dispatched to provide medical assistance for locals.  As the doctors work on the villagers a crowd of young boys swarm about the doctors like a cloud of gnats, waiting for the sweets inevitably passed out. Every one of the boys old enough to walk a straight line is armed with a slingshot, home-made, an obvious source of pride in a place where personal possessions are few and far between, and a physical connection to their past.…