Tag Archives: afghanistan

THE PRESENCE OF THE GONE by Peter Nolan Smith

August 23, 2021 – 2:46 am

Boston is a four-hour bus ride from New York. My brothers and sisters lived in the southern suburbs of my old hometown. After my return from overseas in September 2011 from my European posting I called several times to arrange visits, but my father’s death in 2010 had disconnected our present paths from the routes […]

By Peter | Posted in family, NEW YORK, semi-fiction | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Cover Boys of the Taliban

July 10, 2021 – 2:40 pm

As the Endless War comes to an end in Afghanistan, the Taliban are taking control over large swaths of the mountainous nation. Their troops are primarily comprised of Pathan warriors, whose tribal territory straddles the Afghani-Pakistani border without official delineation. Kandahar is the de facto Pathan capitol, although their fierce loyalty to clan lineage has […]

By Peter | Posted in Asia, Sex, Traditions, War, youth | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

THE SURRENDER OF DESIRE by Peter Nolan Smith

July 10, 2021 – 10:56 am

Before 9/11 I was madly in enamoured with a blonde model from the UK. Judith was smart, funny, and liked her drink. We seemed doomed to be friends, then one wintry evening we drank ourselves past the portals of inhibition. Judith invited me back to her apartment. We made out on her sofa. This wasn’t […]

By Peter | Posted in medicine, NEW YORK, semi-fiction, Sex, War | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

The Utter Folly Of Wise Men

August 8, 2019 – 3:27 pm

Every country has a pantheon of vaunted heroes and military leaders. Their names grace universities, libraries, towns, and cities. Children bear their names in remembrance of their contribution to country. In contrast few parents bestow any honor on the knaves of a nation. Adolf and Benito were banned by an unspoken edict during my childhood. […]

By Peter | Posted in 2010s, history, War | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Tell No Evil

January 12, 2016 – 9:12 pm

Soldiers are notoriously unreliable. The Afghan troops are disorganized under US supervision, while their Taliban counterparts have fought the occupying forces to a stalemate. Same tribesmen. Different motivation. This quandary befuddles military strategists, although modernists within the Pentagon tout the value of a soldier designed along the second stanza of Alfred Tennyson’s famed poem THE […]

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