Afghanistan
The Best Online Sex Ads Posted from Military Bases in Afghanistan
Despite the fact that military bases are often featured prominently in gay porn, I don’t imagine there is a whole lot of sex happening at them, IRL. Getting laid while on duty requires discretion, and propositioning the people you work with is about as...
Afghanistan's Game of Drones
Geography rules in eastern Afghanistan. Rugged mountains and rocky plains make it a difficult trek for people, but well-suited for drones. The Shadow 200, made by the AAI Corporation, is the width of a garage door. Depending on its configuration, it...
Afghanistan's Great Wall of Bones
The wall’s creation story is a dark one. King Zamburak in the sixth century was said to have been a brutal monarch, forcing all his male subjects to work on the wall, which runs along the Sher Darwaza mountains. Those who refused were said to have been...
Afghanistan's Combat Sport Makes Peaceful Warriors
In a warehouse in Kunduz City, young athletes train like madmen. They are dressed in dirty, mismatched gees and colored belts that signify their need to improvise rather than the achievement of a certain skill level. They make due using the only...
Afghanistan's Carpet Loomers Are Feeding Their Kids Hashish
Poverty drives both the carpet and drug business. Husbands tend to be farmers, working long hours in the fields. The only income opportunity for women, who are not able to work anywhere but their homes, is carpet making. But who takes care of the...
Swimming with Warlords
Nabi Gechi is a killer and a warlord, a militia commander in Afghanistan formerly paid by NATO who fights the Taliban and taxes the local population in exchange for the security he provides them. I visited him at his compound recently and went swimming...
What We Can Learn from the Uzbek and Tajik Conflict in Afghanistan
If the world was wondering what Afghanistan might look like following the pullout of international forces in 2014, what happened on Saturday in the city of Taloqan could offer some insight. Ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks fought in the streets with sticks and...
Ben Anderson Is Doing a Reddit AMA Today
At 11 AM today, Ben's going to be doing a Reddit AMA, where you can ask him anything about his new VICE documentary, 'This Is What Winning Looks Like,' which chronicles his time embedded in the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police, as they...
The VICE Podcast Show - Have We Won in Afghanistan?
This week on the podcast we speak with author and filmmaker Ben Anderson, who has just returned from Helmand, the most violent province in Afghanistan. With US forces withdrawing, most of the country is now controlled by the Afghan government and its...
This Is What Winning Looks Like
I didn’t plan on spending six years covering the war in Afghanistan. But with each year, casualties and deaths rose as steadily as the local opium crop and I became obsessed with what I witnessed there—how different it was from the conflict’s portrayal...
Steve McCurry Photographs the Human Condition
Steve McCurry's photo, 'Afghan Girl,' appeared on the cover of 'National Geographic' in 1985 during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and quickly became one of the most famous photos in the world. He has documented the human impact of wars across...
Al Qaeda Wants Africa
A soldier called our attention to a severed head facedown in the dust. “Is it Malian, do you think?” The gendarme kicked it over and studied the face. Dark blood dripped from its mouth. A fly crawled up its nose. “Nah, maybe Algerian or Nigerien."