EMBEDDED - PART 1
PHOTOS BY PIETER-JAN DE PUE
| During a Taliban ambush, the unseen enemy unleashed a hail of rocket-propelled grenades and armor-piercing bullets. The outnumbered gunner is firing blindly from his Humvee, hoping to distract and confuse the aggressors, and I am forced to feed him ammunition as I photograph. |
In the summer of 2008, photographer Pieter-Jan De Pue sent us an email asking if he could give Vice’s contact information to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan in the hope of securing an assignment to be embedded with American troops there. He had been to Afghanistan the year before, but since that trip didn’t end so well (after getting lost in the mountains, he was imprisoned, first by the Chinese Army on suspicion of being an American Air Force spy and later by tribal militia on suspicion of being al-Qaida), he was looking for a more secure way to travel the country and shoot his stories. Going on a trip with a group of guys who are part of the best-trained army in the world seemed like the safest option. He was granted access and embedded with an American unit working alongside the Afghan National Army (ANA). Two days into his assignment, the platoon was ambushed. The lieutenant was killed and four other soldiers were either injured or went nuts and had to be sent home. Lesson: It’s never safe in Afghanistan.
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| probono, on Mar 4, 2009 wrote:
which one do you think would be worse? getting caught by the chinese thinking you were an airforce spy or the tribal militia???? im guessing getting caught by either when your rolling with the us army, instant target. | | Anonymous, on Mar 4, 2009 wrote:
i never noticed how much my dog looks like a donkey. | | Anonymous, on Mar 4, 2009 wrote:
jesus! is it too late for us to turn into one of those neutral countries that don’t meddle in anything outside our own borders? the "us vs the world" thing is getting really old. | |
| captain cheesepuff, on Mar 3, 2009 wrote:
the scariest thing for me would be that you could never ease up. those fuckers are liable to attack at any time, maybe in an allied uniform or some other guerilla tactic that you aren’t expecting. even if there aren’t any rules in love and war, they will find a way to break them. | | Anonymous, on Mar 3, 2009 wrote:
a buddy of mine just returned from the middle east and it was so bad he pretty much has refused to speak of it. needless to say, he’s not stoked about returning. | | Anonymous, on Mar 3, 2009 wrote:
There is no "winning," there is only getting the fuck out and doing our damndest to stay out of Middle Eastern politics. Why do you think 9/11 happened in the first place? It wasn’t because they picked us out of a hat for a random terrorist act. It’s because we meddle with Palestine, Israel, and many other issues that we have no business messing with. | | Anonymous, on Mar 3, 2009 wrote:
Anonymous, on Feb 28, 2009 wrote:
If the USA want to win in Afghanistan, they need to question pursuing a GW Bush solution to 911.
what does that mean? half-ass do your job and slap up a "mission accomplished" banner and leave the mess for the next generation to clean up? no, that’s not the way to win if afghanistan. | |
| komodo, on Mar 2, 2009 wrote:
they most definitely have older and relatively outdated weaponry but the ones we are training are worse off than that. these are the ones that hadn’t taken up arms in the past for the most part. if they had, they would likely be fighting against us. and is it really any wonder they smoke hash or weed? i would too if i was living in hell on earth. | | Anonymous, on Mar 2, 2009 wrote:
going to battle is like going to summer camp? In what backwards, fucked up world would that be true? | | Anonymous, on Mar 2, 2009 wrote:
how do we let these backwoods desert hoppers keep up with us??? really... don’t we have the best weapons and military technology in the world? and what do they have? some pawn shop guns and the leftover ammunitions the soviets left like 20 years ago? how are they doing so well? | | Anonymous, on Mar 2, 2009 wrote:
"woman and her family plead with an ANA soldier to release a detained family member"
if that’s the case then why does she have that creepy smile on her face..? | | Anonymous, on Mar 1, 2009 wrote:
Someone needs to just air drop some sissors and hair gel, and this war would be over very quickly. | | Anonymous, on Feb 28, 2009 wrote:
If the USA want to win in Afghanistan, they need to question pursuing a GW Bush solution to 911. | | Anonymous, on Feb 28, 2009 wrote:
Errr, dams seem pretty effective. As are nuclear weapons. Alternatively, we could kill all the donkeys to stop Afghan men from breeding. Hang on? | | Anonymous, on Feb 27, 2009 wrote:
Afghanistan is surprisingly mountainous and fertile. this is definitely not the sprawling desserts that you see on the news | |
| tanger, on Feb 27, 2009 wrote:
i like how those kids stole all the ammunition and then were like "what the hell, let’s take the carpet too". that’s the kind of intuition we need when fighting crazy ass suicide bombers smoking weed and listening to sitar music. | | Anonymous, on Feb 27, 2009 wrote:
i think if i was an american soldier this would be the worst assignment you could have. you’re working with a bunch of untrained soldiers that likely don’t care too much about the outcome of the battle. we need to pull these men and women back home. the recession is not going to end anytime soon when we’re spending billions a day keeping this neverending struggle rolling. | |
| halzer, on Feb 27, 2009 wrote:
hopefully they’re saving all the poppy plants cause lord knows the world’s gonna need lots and lots of opiates in the hangover from this war on terrorism. | |
| dingo dick, on Feb 26, 2009 wrote:
i know! the russians couldn’t beat them in their heyday and they had really rad uniforms and a president with a forehead birthmark, for christ’s sake. like some black dude from chicago and a bunch of kids trying to pay for college can.
no offense, i love obama. voted for him and all that shit, but really, in a tough-man-off i’d put my money on gorby every time. | | Anonymous, on Feb 26, 2009 wrote:
i’m reading Robert Fisk’s Great War for Civilization right now, and the main lesson in the early goings seems to be "no matter how powerful a country you are, stay the fuck out of Afghanistan." | | Anonymous, on Feb 26, 2009 wrote:
yeah, but the difference here is that no one plays defense in the nba and they play defense with bazookas and landmines. | | Anonymous, on Feb 26, 2009 wrote:
great pics. i used to be afraid of africa, but afghanistan is more dangerous than a rabid cheetah any day of the week | | Anonymous, on Feb 26, 2009 wrote:
if NBA stars take bong rips during half time to come out and score 26 points in the third, i can see how smoking a j can help you focus, and forget about the fact your buddy just had his arm blown off at the elbow. that place is fucked | | |
| dingo dick, on Feb 26, 2009 wrote:
fuck their pants. if anything, it’s a welcome breeze while traipsing around the sand dunes. it’s not like they can hit up the army/navy surplus on flushing for new rations and shit. they probably shouldn’t be there in the first place, so in turn, neither should their pant crotches. | | Anonymous, on Feb 26, 2009 wrote:
Why do army pants suck so much? Two different guys have ripped pants. You would think that supplying our soldiers with pants that don’t rip in the crotch would be a higher priority, but I guess we have to use that money for providing israel with cluster bombs or some shit like that. | | Anonymous, on Feb 26, 2009 wrote:
if anything, they should give them speed. get ’em all jacked up on coke or meth or something. anything but hash. | | Anonymous, on Feb 26, 2009 wrote:
didn’t vice do another story or maybe a vbs show about afghanistan where all the soldiers were smoking joints practically mid-battle? why are we sacrificing our men to fight with these idiots? pot and hash aren’t going to get you pumped to fight, and like i need some stoner covering my ass when fuckers are shooting off artillery at me. | | Anonymous, on Feb 26, 2009 wrote:
This is a lost cause. These fuckers have been fighting their entire lives with rusty bayonets and camels and shit. There’s no training or superior equipment that can prepare you for that. | | Anonymous, on Feb 26, 2009 wrote:
i think some of you are confusing the situation in iraq with afghanistan. we need the troops in afghanistan to do something about the taliban and al qaeda. fuck iraq. let them rebuild or whatever, but if we don’t do something immediately about the real terrorists we’re fucked. | |
| skidmarx, on Feb 26, 2009 wrote:
seriously, what’s the motivation for the afghan army? the u.s. is there doing all their work while they blaze up and dream of banging virgins in the afterlife. i’d sign up for that shit in a heartbeat. pull our troops asap. this is only making people hate us more. | | | Next 30 comments > |
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