Come Back to Afghanistan

When it comes to reading class material, I occasionally am actually surprised at how interesting the material is. Come Back to Afghanistan is one of those few pieces of class related reading material that I thoroughly enjoyed. There were some very interesting passages throughout the book and at some point, intend to read the parts the other groups read. Said Akbar does a terrific job in visualizing the scene for the reader with his great descriptions and interesting insight. The one aspect of this book was being able to get a reaction from someone who grew up in Afghanistan, moved to the United States, and then went back to his homeland. This gives Akbar great insight and also is able to compare both ways of life at the same time. You can definitely tell at some points how America has shifted his point of view somewhat, yet at the same time stays close to his roots in Afghanistan. Being able to get a dynamic perspective helps readers such as myself get a real sense of how different life is over there compared to life in America.

The one part that still sticks in my mind after reading the two sections of the book has to be his encounter with the United States Military. Because of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) we as Americans get only snippets of what life is like in Afghanistan for these soldiers. We have rarely been allowed to see how they interact and how they handle situations other than on Thanksgiving Day when former President George W. Bush comes by surprise delivering turkeys. The way Akbar interacts with these soldiers definitely shows the human element of how these soldiers face the everyday stress of possible death. Having this on one's conscience everyday must take a toll and at times take over what they are trying to accomplish. Akbar does a great job at hinting towards these ideas but doesn't bring it into the forefront at any point in this book.

Another part of this particular passage that stuck with me definitely had to be the torture methods that Abdul Wali had to endure while being in prison. This was yet another aspect of the military that was barely covered by the media until the Abu Grahib scandal was discovered. Well that and on such popular television shows such as "24" which displayed many different methods of torture just to get information out of someone that was held captive. The water method definitely seemed like the most harmful because he was forced to drink water at certain times but was not allowed bathroom privileges. This is when the military is taking it too far just to get information from a possible suspect. If you want them to go through pain and torture, do it another way but also don't take it over the top either like when the details of Abu Grahib came out.

In closing, I was definitely surprised that Said Akbar got to be in such a high pressure situation and was able to describe it so vividly so the audience would be able to find out the truth. The one person I was not suspecting to come out as a villain in all of this had to be the soldier named Dave (who is known as David Passaro and responsible for Wali's death). It made me want to look deeper into his trial and it was shocking to see all of the outrageous things he did to this prisoner. These are methods that in the end usually don't help the U.S. information and instead lead to death and more friction between Afghanistan and the United States.