Another search, another fruitless day with villagers

A dozen men gathered around the U.S. troops who had come to their village on a bright morning to inquire about the bloody events of a week earlier.

03:57 May 15, 2012

Reporter's Notebook

In Khost, not naming names, but mediating blood feuds

In this area of eastern Khost province near the border with Pakistan, the Taliban are the militia with no name.

13:22 April 12, 2012

Reporter's Notebook

Despite atrocities, wartime life rolls on in Afghanistan

Muhammad Tahir jutted his bearded chin toward a U.S. military vehicle idling on the dirt road that cuts through this tiny village’s open-air market. The gunner’s hatch rose above the rooftops, and most of the shops looked small enough to fit inside the 15-ton armored truck.
04:13 March 26, 2012
Reporter's Notebook

Driveway to nowhere: In Kunar, graft is half the battle

There’s one thing left on 1st Lt. Andrew Ferrara’s agenda before he leaves Afghanistan: Make sure his replacement doesn’t get duped into paving the governor’s driveway.
12:38 March 20, 2012
Reporter's Notebook

For soldiers on Afghan patrol, too much time is on their side

It’s said that war is 99 percent boredom and 1 percent sheer terror, so it follows that war coverage tends to dwell on the 1 percent.
13:48 February 21, 2012
Murder plots, theft -- we’ll get there
Magnet for IEDs sees his patrol days end
1-84 Field Artillery Regiment trade food for weapons in Faryab
Afghan soldiers take the lead, slowly, on questioning villagers
Fast and Furious cabs no match for Kabul’s Mad Max roads
U.S., Afghan soldiers trade volleys — ‘No problem!’
Contagion, and a sense of humor
Base life has own pace despite Iraq War outside
In the war zone, time is an enemy
Escape-proof prison in Afghanistan? Inshallah
Shaggy gets the bird; Afghanistan meets its Jackie Chans
IEDs, trucks, and a dilemma in the Afghanistan night
Tale of donkey-borne IED gives dark laughs downrange
The gym at the top of the world
Gators and Hooters in the mountains of Afghanistan
Bomb tech's quick eye saves reporter's life

War zones are strange places. Stars and Stripes reporters capture the odd and amusing stories in these occasional vignettes about life in a place like no other.

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