Word: talibanism
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...shade in the 42-degree centigrade heat. Perched on a ledge overlooking a curve in the Helmand River, Lance Corporal Glenn McAllister whittles sturdy mugs out of green plastic mortar round cases. If it weren't for the guns, the occasional boom of an outgoing mortar round, and the Taliban forces surrounding Zeebrugge, the setting would almost seem like a beachside bar - without the beer. "All we need now is some sand," muses Collins. "Maybe we should push down to the river and get some exclusive beachfront property...
...done over 300 episodes, and there are a lot that I really love. We went out on an aircraft carrier at the beginning of the war against the Taliban. That's one of my favorites. The median age on the ship was 21. It felt like being on a big, floating, nuclear-powered, very heavily armed college dorm. People were really funny and smart and charming...
...with a long white beard responds. "I have heard from the Taliban commander that you British soldiers have come to kill civilians." Before Shervington can answer, a rocket-propelled grenade whistles over the gathering. He dives to protect Raziq, while the soldiers take cover. The villagers, unperturbed, gather around the flour-laden truck to get their rations; then they disappear. The RPG had come from a compound further south, aimed not at the shura, but at the British forces waiting on the road. Unable to spot the insurgents, the soldiers are prevented from returning fire...
...Shervington returns to camp despondent. His mood darkens further the next morning, when he hears that the Taliban had held their own shura in the same courtyard the previous night, where villagers were warned off taking anything from the foreigners or the district commissioner. The insurgents told the farmers to leave Kajaki Olya within 15 days, at the end of the poppy harvest...
...depressed," says Shervington, who is dedicated to Afghanistan and believes NATO can succeed, although not as quickly as he'd like. "What can you do? The easy thing would be to listen to the Taliban, and not go to Kajaki Olya anymore. The villagers are caught between us and the Taliban." He spreads his hands apart and smacks them together. "But we can't not go in. And we can't fight the Taliban, either. So we are caught...