Yon: Hashed up in Afghanistan

Michael Yon tells the story of a hash find in Afghanistan, using photography rather than a lengthy essay to make his point.  This story actually gets told through the voice of a soldier, who took the pictures and provided the captions.  It’s lengthy but fascinating, and it gives a much better sense of the operations in eastern Afghanistan than we get through reports of battles in the regular media.

This essay gets bookended by a few discoveries of hashish in large quantities.  We hear a lot about opium and poppies in Afghanistan, but hash is a big problem as well.  The Taliban uses that trade to finance their operations.  As can be seen from the photographs, the Taliban manages to buy some pretty high-tech gear, some of which they have to leave in a hurry.  When hash caches get discovered, troops try to destroy it immediately, although some local police forces are more interested in “confiscating” it.

Another interesting point shown in the photo essay is the effort to avoid IEDs.  Instead of using roads, where the Taliban plant explosives, the Coalition forces simply make new roads.  It’s slow, but effective.

Be sure to read the entire essay.

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