Walking through minefields (literally)

I think we had quite possibly the strangest interview scenario of my life today. We decided to take a drive out of Kabul today and head into the countryside to get a sense of things out of the big city. About an hour out of town we spotted a huge field full of red flags. It turns out that it was a minefield clearance area run by the UN and an Afghan organization, MFC. After 20 minutes of getting the appropriate clearance we donned the blast jackets and headed out to check out their fieldwork and do a little Q and A. These guys are some of the most courageous people I’ve ever met. Just another day at the office of clearing explosives. They told of the huge amount of American mines that were dropped during the invasion in 2001. They were dropped from Air Force bombers and split apart before impact to scatter their “bomblets” across as wide an area as possible. Unfortunately, there is a ton of Russian mines here too as was true in the field we visited. It’s gonna be a decade at least before Afghan lands are clear of these insanely horrible weapons.

Filed under Journals, War, Issues, Dominic Howes, Countries, Afghanistan.
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