The upper floor of the house converted to an office in Kabul's district three, near the Afghan parliament, was loud, smokey and noteable for those in attendance.

To my left was a member of Afghanistan's Parliment.  Sitting next to him was a former General of the KhAD, Afghanistan's intelligence service during the Soviet era.  To my right were two retired Colonels.  One a retired Spetznas/GRU officer of the Soviet/Russian, the other retired from the Lithuanian Army.

I was the only one not speaking Russian.

The travel writer Paul Theroux recently exhorted readers of the Sunday New York Times to ignore "the know-it-all, stay-at-home finger wagger [who] says of many a distant place, 'Don't go there.'" 
Theroux says his trips to "these maligned countries are the most fulfilling."

Rugged, adventure travel in the nominally dangerous country he says can be life changing, the value of the enrichment only understood after the fact.  [Or in the telling of the stories to impress people at dinner parties.]

Theroux also writes, "I wouldn’t go to present-day Somalia or Afghanistan."

I'm living in a boutique hotel above a Cafe and ranging around the city and outlying areas on foot or in a Toyota Four-Runner the way a tourist on a budget would.

"Kabul is a magnet for interesting people," the Lithuanian Colonel would later say.  "Well, not the man at the UN who never leaves the compound.  He's boring."

For my eighth trip to the wars, I've totally jumped the shark. 

Like many things it began with an email from an acquaintance.  "A few friends of mine are going to Afghanistan and need to hire a camera man," wrote Roman Genn, the artist and contributing editor to National Review magazine.

Roman, a tall, soft man with waves of thick brown hair looks like the type to avoid an adventure but was flushed with excitment when I met up with him in Dubai.  He is a contributing editor at National Review where he does art work and carictures.  He immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1990. We met through facebook after an article of mine ran in the magazine.  Dubai was the first time we had actually met in person.

Over a beer and Diet Coke at a bar in the Dubai airport he told me the backstory of how he hatched this adventure.

Last Summer I wrote an article for National Review comparing the Soviet and American experiences in Parwan province, North of Kabul.  Roman read the article and saw a better story, take two former Soviet soldiers back to Afghanistan to get their thoughts comparing the Soviet and American experience.  He pitched the idea to Radio Free Europe who jumped on the idea.

His friends were the aforementioned Spetznas/GRU Colonel and Iskander, a former Russian paratrooper who after the Afghan war became a successful businessman and TV/Movie producer were game.  Iskander is also producing a Russian film that has the Soviet raid on the Presidential palace Tajbek as a sub-plot and needed architectural footage of the palace and grounds.

The arrangement sounded an elaborate cover or the set up to a joke:  Three Russians and an an American Redneck go to Afghanistan.....we're living the punch-line as I type.  My greatest hopes, that the trip really was elaborate cover for some Russian Government operation and that Roman was actually a sleeper agent who inserted himself as cartoonist into America's leading journal of conservative opinion were dashed when I saw how constantly worried he was about completing products Radio Free Europe.  Very few spies live their cover well enough that they would have visible anxiety about turning in news reports on deadline.

Roman is not a spy.  But retired Lt. Colonel Vadim Fersovich of the Soviet then Russian Spetznas/GRU is pretty close.  The GRU is Russian military intelligence.  Spetznas is the GRU's in house reconiassance and sabotage unit.  Vadim served two tours in Afghanistan, spent a lot of time in Chechnya.  Now he's a military writer and think tank analyst.  [Which is also excellent cover.]  The biggest clue to the Vadim's background and tradecraft is that he does not look, dress or act Russian.  With a full head of salt & pepper hair, slim build, rimless eyeglasses and penchant for wearing a light weight sport coat, he looks like a professor from an insignificant college in Denmark.

He met us in parking lot C of Kabul international airport with our driver and warm hugs.  We were amazed we all arrived essentially on time with all our luggage.
And thus began the Russian Job.

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Dinner at the cafe.  Clockwise, left to right, JD, our driver, Lt. Col. Vadim, KhAD General, Lithuanian Colonel, Roman

Rain flooded streets in Kabul.  There is no storm water runoff or drainage system in the city.

Touring Babur's Gardens and Tomb

Roman early in the morning

Lt. Col. Vadim Fersovich, Soviet/Russian Army, Retired

Mi class helicoptors of the Afghan military flying over Kabul

Shanty town, illegal housing growing up a hill in Kabul

Vadim and Iskander with Battle Brotherhood banner at Tajbek.

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