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Sergeant Notes Odd Rituals of War in Afghanistan

In 2003, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Clint Douglas was deployed to Afghanistan with the 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne) of the Illinois National Guard. Douglas, who was once a Peace Corps volunteer, found himself walking a fine line between cultural sensitivity and the demands of winning a war against the Taliban.

The complications of war in Afghanistan were magnified by the military's odd alliances and interactions with local leaders.

At one point, Douglas found himself sitting down to dinner with one of his bitter enemies. He wrote about the encounter in a personal narrative that was included in the book Operation Homecoming.

Clint Douglas has been writing full time since he returned from Afghanistan, and has been finishing his book, Lunch with Pirates, an account of his participation in American interventionism, as both a Peace Corps volunteer and in the Army Special Forces.

This series is produced by Barrett Golding of HearingVoices.com.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.