The War in Afghanistan – Images from the Frontline

The air was thick with bullets. They passed so close I could hear them whizzing and zinging as they cut through the air all around me on that bare naked hill, kicking up small pieces of rocks and dirt. Somewhere behind me, the setting sun dipped the ridgeline in a deep black, concealing the man with the machine gun that was out there to kill me.

The year 2009 has seen a steep increase in violence, as the Taliban-dominated insurgency and a coalition of NATO and Afghan security forces find themselves locked in a fierce battle for the future of Afghanistan and its people. As fatalities are on the rise amongst coalition forces, determination in the western capitals is waning where political leaders struggle with an electorate that is increasingly opposed to the military engagement in Afghanistan.

That I was running up that hill, fully exposed to a hail machine gun fire until I made it to safety behind the thick steel of an armored vehicle might be seen as indicative of the situation NATO forces and their allies find themselves in, but it misses the point. The fight for a stable Afghan state will not be won or lost on its ancient battlefields, but at home, where a majority of the public tends to be at odds with the concept of armed nation building, especially as these efforts are met with increasingly lethal resistance.

And yet there soldiers out there, international and Afghan ones alike that fight and sacrifice and die for a stable Afghanistan and a better future for its residents. These images offer a glimpse and an insight into their battle; a story that deserves to be told from the perspective of those fighting it.