The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan (36 page)

The camaraderie of journalists in a war zone usually defies the stereotype of reporters with sharp elbows. Murray Brewster took me under his wing, and I will always feel kinship with the temporary residents of the media tents at Kandahar Air Field. These included Al
“Big Daddy” Stephens, Stephanie Levitz, Michael Heenan, Stephen Puddicombe, Francis Silvaggio, Tim Lee, Sat Nandlall, Mellissa Fung, Paul Workman, Richard Johnson, Tom Blackwell, Sarah Galashan, Jonathan Fowlie, Peter Armstrong, Piya Chattopadhyay, Kelly Cryderman, Steve Chao, Lee Greenberg, Tom Parry, Peter Harris, Adam Day, Derek Stoffel, Jas Johal, Jeffrey Stephen, Colin Perkel, Tobi Cohen, Jonathan Montpetit, Sue Bailey, Martin Ouellet, Bob Weber, Dene Moore, Andrew Mayeda, Pascal Leblonde, Susan Ormiston, David Common, Laurie Graham, Susan Lunn, Brian Hutchinson, Mitch Potter, Matthew Fisher, Ben O’Hara-Byrne, Michael Heenan, Don Martin, Louie Palu, Mike Drolet, Paul Johnson, Lauren McNabb, Steve Rennie, Finbarr O’Reilly, Terry Pedwell, James McCarten, Bill Graveland, Fabrice de Pierrebourg, Agnès Gruda, Michèle Ouimet, Hugo Meunier, Bruce Campion-Smith, Rick Madonik, Rosie DiManno, Lisa LaFlamme, Tom Clark, Seamus O’Regan, Michelle Lang and many others.

Beyond the Canadian media, I was also lucky to meet intrepid journalists such as Kathy Gannon, Lyse Doucet, Carlotta Gall, James Bays, Tom Coghlan, Gretchen Peters, Yaroslav Trofimov, Tim Albone, Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, Jason Burke, Anders Somme Hammer and Philip Poupin. Kathy, in particular, guided me through complicated issues.

Some of the greatest experts in the region were generous with their time and patience. Sarah Chayes welcomed me into Kandahar city and taught me the basics; Ahmed Rashid hosted me at his beautiful home and explained the region; Talatbek Masadykov, Eckart Schiewek, Michael Semple, Mervyn Patterson, Paul Fishstein, Barbara Stapleton and Barnett Rubin taught me Afghan politics. David Mansfield explained narcotics; Grant Kippen described elections. My wonderful friends, Georgette Gagnon and Nikolaus Grubeck, helped me understand human-rights issues. Antonio Giustozzi gave me my first taste of book-writing; Christine Fair showed me that it’s possible to be a serious thinker but keep a sense of humour.
John Duncan, Mark Sedra, Amir Attaran, Roland Paris, Stephen Saideman and Kamran Bokhari offered expert perspectives from Canada. I also benefitted from the wisdom of Martine Van Bijlert, Peter Bergen, Anatol Lieven and Matt Waldman. More recently, I’ve also started to depend on Kate Clark, Fabrizio Foschini, Bette Dam, Megan Minnion, Heather Barr, Rachel Reid, Susanne Schmeidl and Riona Nicholls.

I gained profound respect for Joanna Nathan and Candace Rondeaux during, and after, their stints with the International Crisis Group, and feel grateful that they introduced me to the organization. I’m lucky to work under an illustrious group of bosses: Louise Arbour, Jonathan Prentice, Joost Hiltermann, Paul Quinn-Judge, Mark Schneider, Jim Della-Giacoma and, especially, Samina Ahmed.

This book would not have been possible without the resources and leadership of
The Globe and Mail
, a great Canadian newspaper. Stephen Northfield served as foreign editor during most of my years as a correspondent, and often my only job in Kandahar was to serve as a conduit between his brilliant mind and our talented Afghan staff. The rest of the foreign desk during that period—especially Susan Sachs, Philippe Devos, Christine Mushka, Linda Hossie and Shelley Cathers—saved me from embarrassment more times than I can remember. I had too many generous colleagues to list them, but I leaned especially hard on Paul Koring, Mark MacKinnon, Geoffrey York, Doug Saunders, Stephanie Nolen, Eric Reguly, Les Perreaux, Gloria Galloway, Steven Chase, Christine Diemert, Kathryn Mills, Karim Bardeesy, Jane Armstrong, Sue Andrew, Tim Appleby, Jeffrey Simpson, Murray Campbell, Sonia Verma, Jessica Leeder, Anthony Reinhart, Tu Thanh Ha, Colin Freeze, Joe Friesen, Patrick White and Greg McArthur. I also appreciated Christie Blatchford, my friendly adversary. Special thanks to Phillip Crawley and Edward Greenspon for approving the budget required to keep a correspondent in Kandahar. Thanks to Paul Knox, the foreign editor who first sent me overseas, and especially to Sylvia Stead, who watched over me.

I fell into journalism at
The Eyeopener
, the campus newspaper at Ryerson University, and my old colleagues feel like family: Liane McLarty, Kenny Yum, Sean Fitz-Gerald, Caroline Alphonso, Shane Dingman, Stephanie Bomba, Lori Fazari, Tim Fraser, Renata D’Aliesio, Ka Yan Ng, Michael Friscolanti and the rest of the gang. Nor could I have survived the newspaper trade without mentors: Tim Falconer, Lynn Cunningham, Julian Sher, Michelle Shephard and Rick MacInnes-Rae, among others.

I spent time with military forces from several countries, and was impressed by their hospitality, but the Canadian military stood above the rest because of its uniquely open system of embedding. Journalists could eat breakfast with the troops, walk off the base and have lunch with insurgents, then get back to the military mess hall for dinner. The fact that the Canadian military remained so helpful to journalists—in the face of political backlash—was a remarkable choice of principle over expediency. The military viewed me as a tough critic (my best friend among the officers called me “Darth Vader”) but I can’t remember a harsh word from any of the personnel. They remained polite, diligent and professional. I won’t tarnish their careers by naming any of them, but I deeply admire many of the soldiers and officers who served in Afghanistan.

The same is true of the diplomats and United Nations staff. Chris Alexander, in particular, deserves thanks for explaining the optimistic view of the war with intelligence and rigor, no matter how much I disagreed.

Thanks to Asadullah Khalid for taking criticism with good humour.

Thanks to Richard Madan, Micaela White and Kiran Kothari for keeping my spirits up, and to Serif Turgut for her generous read of the book.

Deepest thanks to May Jeong—for the title, the careful editing and much else.

Most of the work on this manuscript happened at the Ritim Galata Cafe in Istanbul; the library of the Aman New Delhi; and the Dark
Horse Espresso Bar and Balzac’s Coffee, at their locations in eastern Toronto. I’m grateful for their tolerance of a squatter with a laptop.

Most importantly, I would like to thank my family: my parents Stewart Smith and Lynn Gresham, and my sister Caitlin Smith, the brilliant music composer. It wasn’t easy for them, getting occasional calls over crackling phone lines, or a few hasty e-mails. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

And apologies, to those I’ve forgotten.