The Afghan society may now be regarded a murderous society … We have become soulless and dry, no longer beings of care and love, but brutal and fierce animals. It is not right to name a society murderous, but the Afghan society may be called so … The state is a state of killing, not only in the battlefield but also in the lanes and streets of cities where there is no state of war. No one feels secure, and because of this many families have fled abroad.

In Afghanistan I served at Ghazni … Life in the unit was fairly calm, unless we were involved in operations, when everything was different … We didn't see any friendly Afghans anywhere – only enemies. Even the Afghan army was unfriendly … Everyone around us was an enemy. I remember an intense feeling of anger toward the rebels because so many of our guys were getting killed. I wanted revenge.

Then I began to doubt the goals and methods of international aid. I had a difficult time deciding what I really believed. I just knew what I had to say during the political instruction meeting: that we were fighting “American aggression” and “Pakis.” Why had we mined all the approaches to the regiment? I asked myself. Why were we aiming our machine guns at every Afghan? Why were we killing the people we came here to help?

Whenever a peasant was blown up by a mine, no one took him to the medical unit. […]