Original subtitles

(wind whooshing)

(metal clanging)

(light orchestral music)

(wind blowing)

- [Louie] September 23rd, 2010.

Another day in Kandahar.

I must focus now.

Think of the frame.

Think of each side of the rectangle.

Focus on the frame.

Stay calm under fire.

Focus your mind.

Acknowledge the danger

and work.

Everything happens so fast.

I must control my mind.

Relax and get the shot.

Don't let the situation control me.

I must control what is in my frame.

I must look beyond the literal,

stay calm.

Think of the rectangle.

I must reach out for inspiration.

Composure under fire.

Do not let the speed of the situation overtake you.

Repeat,

rectangle, composition.

Get back to basics.

(dramatic orchestral music)

(wind blowing)

I photographed the war in Kandahar, Afghanistan,

from to 2006 to 2010

Afghan, American, and Canadian troops

were locked in a bitter struggle for control of Kandahar.

Most of the fighting took place west of Kandahar City

in the districts of Zhari, Panjwayi, and Arghandab.

What follows are excerpts from the journals I've written

and the visual diary I kept.

- [Soldier] Seven-three, Charlie.

IED blast.

Five meters wide, five meters long.

(truck engine rumbling)

(crowd chattering)

- July 13th, '09.

Senjaray, Kandahar.

I'm now leaving the exhaustion of war.

I'm here for a small hit on an insurgents' weapons cache

with the Canadian police mentor team.

Every patrol and drive up the highway is stressful.

I cringe as I wait for the boom of an IED or landmine.

I'm not afraid of gunfire.

I'm terrified of losing my legs.

(dramatic orchestral music)

(all applauding)

After five years of working in Kandahar,

I'm not sure any of my work connects to anyone.

How can I possibly convey the reality of war

through words and pictures?

(crickets and birds chirping)

Thanks.

- 300 meters.

- [Louie] Over the years,

I covered multiple patrols and combat operations

with Afghan, American, and Canadian soldiers.

Most of the fighting happened in

rural agricultural districts west of Kandahar City.

(panting)

(explosion booming)

(dramatic orchestral music)

When you fly in from the air,

it looks so beautiful.

It looks mesmerizing.

It's like seeing the romantic history

of what Kandahar grew from.

When you hit the ground,

it feels like you're on the moon.

There are craters,

mine fields,

bombed-out buildings.

You can feel the tension.

Kandahar is the seat of Taliban power.

There's a Pashtun proverb that says,

"If you control Kandahar,

you control Afghanistan."

August 17th, 2010.

This land seems to be a place nobody wants,

yet everyone looks to control.

The uncontrollable land,

stabbing upward to the sky,

the ravaged earth,

scorched by nature itself.

(truck engine rumbling)

So I have some pretty phenomenal memories

of working in Kandahar,

especially Kandahar City.

This is Khan, one of my many fixers.

He's my local colleague/guide/translator/journalist.

This is me in his car, traveling around Kandahar City.

This is me in the soccer stadium in Kandahar.

You know, this stadium used to be used for

public executions by the Taliban.

This is an absolutely amazing place in Kandahar City.

This is the Idgah.

This is a massive outdoor mosque,

right beside Kandahar University.

This is me, and Khan, and another friend.

But I think what I'll never forget about Kandahar City

is this suicide bombing I covered in 2006.

(dramatic orchestral music)

There was this dead body.

It was most likely the facilitator who was

working with the suicide bomber.

He was probably killed by accident

when the suicide bomber's vest went off.

And then there's the bomber.

I think what really struck me

was not just what I was seeing,

but the smell.

The smell burned itself into my mind for days.

His body parts continue to haunt me to this day.

But it has also created a new me,

a more sensitive human being.

After the suicide bombing,

I realized just how difficult some things are to photograph.

What I was seeing in the news back home

and what the reality on the ground was

were two different things.

I wanted to go back to attempt to explain

what was going on in Kandahar.

(camera clicking)

(men speaking unintelligibly)

(explosion booming)

(speaking foreign language)

(explosion booming)

(speaking foreign language)

- Is that good, having the radio in the background?

- [Louie] I like it.

It sounds like,

(imitates radio static)

"Bring in the hueys!"

- It's like there's a war goin' on.

(chuckling)

It's almost like there's an actual war going on here.

That's the best part, almost.

- [Louie] Okay, so tell me a little about Zhari District.

- Ugh.

What do you want to know about, exactly?

- [Louie] Whatever you want to tell me.

- Everything.

Zhari District's a very complicated place.

Uh,

the people here, I think, want to do well,

but the Taliban influence is pretty strong.

So, a lot of times we'll go in, we'll talk to people.

And you know they probably want to tell you more,

but the fact that there's probably a brother, or a cousin,

or a friend who's really with the insurgency

usually stops them from

saying anything that might get them in trouble.

The weirdest thing here is that,

is that there's no front lines.

There's no friendly areas,

or even necessarily enemy areas.

'Cause there's places you go into

that people will speculate and say,

"This is a guaranteed contact.

For sure, we're going to get hit."

And then there's nothing.

(dog barking)

(speaking foreign language)

(boy shushing dog)

(dog growling and barking)

(dog barking)

- Yeah.

- You go out and, I mean, out of 100 patrols,

you might get, like, 10 of them that might be contacts.

And out of that 100, you might get 10 good ones

where you get down and sit and talk to people.

Sometimes you're just walking around

and you don't get anything at all.

(speaking foreign language)

You've got no choice except to

gear yourself up for the eventuality of the contact.

And you've got to be prepared for the eventuality that

you're just going to sit and talk to somebody all day long.

That's it.

You've got to go to both extremes all the time.

So it means you can't mentally prepare yourself

ahead of time

for one or the other.

(speaking foreign language)

(guns firing)

(speaking foreign language)

(guns firing)

(guns firing)

(dramatic orchestral music)

(guns firing)

(truck horn honking)

(guns firing)

(all chattering)

- [Louie] Kandahar is a complicated place to explain.

Okay, so

very basically speaking,

that's, ooh.

I drew outside the fucking lines.

Damn it!

Okay, geography/Afghanistan lesson.

Take three.

This is Afghanistan.

Afghanistan.

Okay, take five.

Afghanistan/Kandahar geography lesson.

This is Kandahar Province.

This is Helmand Province.

This is Kandahar City.

This is the current capitol of Kabul.

And you have Pakistan

all the way up through here.

(sighing)

Fuck.

Which take is this?

This stupid map idea.

Kabul, Kandahar City,

Kandahar Province.

What you've got here is a major mountain range.

Mountains.

What you've got down here is you've got a desert.

If you want to invade from the Middle East

into the Indian Peninsula,

you have to go through Kandahar.

It is the only way.

Also, if you want to get to the capitol of Kabul,

it's very hard.

You can't go through the mountain range.

You gotta come up through here, and go up to Kabul this way.

And that's why Kandahar City

is the most important part of this area.

- [Soldier] Can you vault this wall?

- [Soldier] What's that?

- [Soldier] Fuck, never mind.

There's (indistinct) in there.

Big jump!

Big jump!

- [Louie] When I went back,

I started going deeper into the front lines.

The longer I was there,

the further out I went.

- Hey Lou.

- [Louie] Yeah?

- You get the arty comin' in?

- [Louie] Well.

(chuckling)

- [Snoddon] It'll be all right.

- [Soldier] Well, could get shot

fuckin' twice over this wall.

- [Louie] My headcam is working.

- [Soldier] Ready to fire.

- [Soldier] Yeah, fuckin' fire it.

Arty comin' in!

Three rounds effect!

Six rounds total!

- [Soldier] Take that, you fuckin' cocksuckers.

Keep your fuckin' heads down!

Stay under cover!

(explosion booming)

(explosions booming)

(soldiers laughing and cheering)

- [Soldier] Complete out.

A beautiful thing down here.

- [Soldier] Take that, you-

(explosion booming)

- [Louie] Fuck!

- [Soldier] What's up?

- [Louie] That one went fuckin' right by my face.

Watch yourself.

(guns firing) (soldiers shouting)

- [Louie] Fuck me.

I'm right behind you.

(guns firing)

(dramatic orchestral music)

Returning home from war

is like living in two different realities.

(water running)

My reason for covering the war in the first place

was because of my family history.

I grew up as a pretty average Canadian kid.

The son of Italian immigrants

born before the Second World War.

As a child, my parents told me many stories

about the war around the kitchen table.

Ma, is this enough?

Their traumatic experiences

have shaped who I am.

One of the stories my father told me

was watching his own father

being taken away by soldiers at gunpoint.

I needed to understand what he understood.

- [Man] Next station is Shaw University.

Doors will be opening on the left side.

- [Louie] May 21st, 2010.

I am over 100 years old.

I stare at the road and dirt,

and it makes more sense than the people around me.

I have aged faster and more

in five years than in a lifetime.

(armored vehicle engine rumbling)

June 13th, 2009.

Another fucking road sweep.

Again.

The same thing happens

over and over,

day in, day out.

When I first arrive in the field,

that first day in the armored vehicle,

I get anxiety.

Every patrol and drive up the highway is stressful.

I cringe as I wait for the boom of an IED or landmine.

I am not afraid of gunfire.

I'm terrified of losing my legs.

(dramatic orchestral music)

- There's no easy way to define

when trouble is coming,

or when trouble's not there at all.

I'd say that's the most difficult part about this war.

So far, in almost a year here,

I haven't seen a single Taliban,

But I'm pretty sure I've talked to a lot of them.

(eerie ambient music)

It's always far off.

It's, it's happening somewhere else, you know,

or it's gunshots from a certain distance away from you,

and stuff like that.

Or IEDs placed where the guy's not around any more,

where he's been long gone.

But you sit in these villages

and you talk to, like, 10, 20 people,

while there's a good chance that one of them

is an insurgent or a sympathizer,

or has a brother who is,

and doesn't want to tell you anything.

There's probably a lot more rubbing elbows with the enemy

than we even think,

that we even know about.

(speaking foreign language)

They play on that whole mystique, the whole

history of the Taliban,

the actual Taliban itself here.

So they can reap all the benefits, right,

associated with that negative connotation of the Taliban,

even when they're not really Taliban themselves.

They're drug runners.

They're just power-hungry people.

They're foreigners.

They're this or that.

And they just call themselves Taliban,

and it all just adds, it culminates.

It gives them a certain mystique, I think.

- [Louie] So let me explain

why all the fighting happens around Kandahar City.

So we've got Kandahar City right here.

This goes to Pakistan,

this goes to the capitol, Kabul,

and this goes to Iran.

But what we also have here

is a number of very significant sites.

What we have here is the holiest shrine

in Islam in Afghanistan,

if not the whole region.

And what we have here

is the tomb of the founder of Afghanistan.

The Taliban was founded in a small village, right there.

Al-Qaeda had their headquarters here.

Tarnak Farms,

which is where they planned the attacks for 9/11.

But I think they key thing to understand in the fighting is

there are three agricultural districts

west of the city.

Arghandab District, Zhari District,

Panjwayi District.

And within these three districts,

there are numerous small villages.

And the Taliban use these villages

as sanctuaries to threaten and attack Kandahar City.

And in 2009,

I followed Canadian, American, and Afghan troops

on combat operations

to try and clear some of these villages of Taliban control.

One was Siah Choy,

one was Pashmul,

and one was Nakhonay.

So Canadian, American, and Afghan troops

conducted combat operations

to clear these areas

and push the Taliban back.

And this was a cycle

that I covered for years in this area.

(crickets chirping)

June 28th, 2009.

Siah Choy, Zhari District.

I have been on Tora Arwa II, an operation.

I am with Jokers two-two,

a platoon in Bravo Company.

(coughing)

(speaking foreign language)

(explosion booming)

- [Soldier] Heads up!

(all chattering)

(coughing)

(dramatic orchestral music)

(goat bleating)

(speaking foreign language)

(goat bleats)

(goat bleats)

(speaking foreign language) (all chattering)

- [Louie] June 29th, 2009.

A boy in a home in the initial assault said to me,

"This is my home.

This my home."

As I stood in the rubble of a blast

that destroyed half his home,

his siblings cried in fear.

Amile was arrested.

(guns firing)

(speaking foreign language)

(guns firing)

(breathing heavily)

(guns firing)

The smashing, crushing crack of artillery.

Gentle thrust of a jet overhead.

Ready to pounce on insurgents.

(speaking foreign language)

(guns firing)

(suspenseful music)

During the operation,

the intensity of the fighting grew.

Then the Taliban attacked.

- [Soldier] Someone's got to watch him!

Un-bunch yourselves!

Fuckin' spread down.

Let's go!

All you bunched up, move down right now!

(speaking foreign language)

- [Soldier] Two guys from the northeast-

- [Soldier] Do it now!

(guns firing)

- [Soldier] Keep going!

Keep going!

(explosion booming)

- [Soldier] Keep going!

Keep going!

- [Soldier] Two guys on the right!

(guns firing)

(all shouting)

(speaking foreign language)

(guns firing)

- [Soldier] We've got 800 bullets for these guns, man!

(guns firing)

(all shouting)

(guns firing)

- [Man] Let it rain!

- [Soldier] We got us info!

From the east towards the west!

Behind the tree line!

(explosion booming)

For the west or the east!

- [Soldier] That way's west!

- [Soldier] Sorry, the other way around, yeah.

- [Soldier] Which way should I go?

(guns firing)

(speaking foreign language)

- [Soldier] Slayer three-one!

Slayer three-one!

(guns firing)

Slayer three-one!

(explosion booming)

- [Louie] Fuck!

Tabarnak.

- [Snoddon] What the fuck was wrong, man?

- [Louie] You jumped right in front of my big shot.

- [Snoddon] Why didn't you tell me?

- I'll just stand off the fuckin' frag instead

so you can get your shot.

Why don't you show the Coalition forces together instead?

(explosion booming)

That is a good shot.

You got all three.

- [Soldier] The fuck is that shit, man?

(explosion booming)

(speaking foreign language)

- [Louie] He sayin'?

- On the com, they're asking for cars.

They want to extract their wounded.

And Tango three-two,

cut off a fuckin' vehicle who's trying to extract wounded.

So hopefully we'll detain-

(explosion booming)

Treat them according to the Geneva convention.

- [Soldier] They didn't sign the paper.

- What's that?

- [Soldier] They didn't sign a paper.

- Yeah, doesn't matter.

We're Canadians.

We help everybody equally.

(explosion booming)

Throw RPGs at us.

- [Soldier] That's what you finally hear

in the shot from them.

(birds and crickets chirping) (speaking foreign language)

- [Louie] Locking the Kevlar frag vest onto your body

is like a heat coil onto your torso.

Prickly heat starts after a few days of not showering,

then the misery builds.

Thorn bushes, wet boots, bugs, flies.

(eerie ambient music)

June 29th, 2009.

Yesterday, an older man was detained.

He has alleged links to insurgents.

He had a shopping list of food.

Soldiers believed it was for food for the insurgents.

He cried as he sat squat for most of the day,

blindfolded,

ears plugged.

(speaking foreign language)

(speaking foreign language)

- [Soldier] Hey, protect your ear.

It will be a fucking big bang.

(explosion booming)

- [Man] Tabarnak!

(soldier giggles)

(speaking foreign language)

- [Louie] Nakhonay.

Another operation.

I walked around for days in the heat.

Nothing happened.

(aircraft passing overhead)

(speaking foreign language)

(all cheering)

On the last day of the operation,

a soldier accidentally stumbled upon

an insurgents' weapons cache in a grape field.

(speaking foreign language)

- [Soldier] Hey, don't touch with the finger!

Don't touch, don't touch, don't touch!

(speaking foreign language)

- [Soldier] Fingerprints!

Fingerprints!

(speaking foreign language)

- [Soldier] Fingerprints.

If they find your prints on this,

the police arrest you.

(birds chirping)

(speaking foreign language)

- [Soldier] Yes, salut.

(speaking foreign language)

- [Louie] Even in the most violent areas,

sometimes all you get is a conversation

with village elders.

- [Soldier] Seven years, I never seen any flower here.

I never seen any rice for us.

- Have you seen any other Americans comer here before?

(speaking foreign language)

- [Soldier] Just drop here for us.

- [Soldier] Tell him I can't drop there

because what if Taliban see me walk the stuff over there?

(speaking foreign language)

- [Soldier] No, why not?

Tell him which way is the bad way

that they're afraid of?

(speaking foreign language)

- A lot of times, we'll go in,

we'll talk to people,

and you know they probably want to tell you more, but

I'd say some of them are trustworthy.

Yeah, I'd say some of them are probably trustworthy.

But it's always the same thing.

They're probably stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I mean, there's no governance here.

There's no, there's no real,

all the leadership, the village leadership,

anybody who has money just leaves.

So that means what you're left with is this,

like, "Lord of the Flies"-type society,

where basically the strongest man rules for the day

until he gets enough money,

then seems to take off.

To be quite honest,

if you don't give 'em jobs, well,

it's not that I understand why they support the insurgency,

but a guy's got to feed his family.

So he probably goes to extreme measures to feed his family.

(speaking foreign language)

The toughest thing here is probably

what we don't see,

and that's the progress.

'Cause the fact that you're only here

for six months at a time.

Things go slow, go very slow.

So mistakes that were made, let's say, the tour before.

Well, you, you pay for it.

There's very rarely, if ever,

any immediate gratification or immediate satisfaction.

(speaking foreign language)

(helicopters approaching)

(Soldier hums theme from "Ride of the Valkyries")

(eerie ambient music)

- [Louie] During and after the war,

I was on other assignments.

Some of my work involved covering the US government.

- [Woman] The Chair recognizes (indistinct).

- As of the year 2002,

the US has appropriated

almost seven and a half billion dollars

for counter-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan.

This money includes over four million

for the Department of State's

Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.

- [Man] Multiple car bombings

struck the capitol this morning.

The nearly 9,0000 deaths in Iraq last year

made it US forces armed in 2011.

The civil war endangering Syria.

(voices chattering) (camera shutter clicking)

- [Man] Director of National Intelligence James Clapper

last week testified there are likely

26,000 extremist fighters in Syria.

- [Man] Let me start with you

and ask a few questions about Afghanistan.

In 95%-plus

of tactical firefights

in which the Afghan Security Forces engaged in,

they held their ground.

- [Man] Core Al-Qaeda and Al-Qaeda affiliate,

the goal is the same, no matter what the name may be,

it's to drive the United States out of the Mid-East

and create an Islamic caliphate in that region.

- [Man] Terror tactics continue to be deadly.

I believe the situation in Afghanistan

has been fundamentally improved by efforts-

- [Man] There's just an uncertainty out there

that has been created.

The fact that no decision's been made by the administration

on what sort of force-structure

will remain in place in Afghanistan to ensure that

the gains that we've made over the years

are going to remain in place,

and that there will be security provided for

diplomatic as well as the community

which is critical to ensue that those gains are maintained.

(all chattering)

(speaking foreign language)

- [Man] Stay awake.

There you go.

Good boy.

(all chattering)

- [Man] Medivac, medivac, medivac.

First out to the aircraft.

- [Louie] I had moved over to a US medivac embed.

A lot of freedom to truly capture the war.

The full cycle of what war really is.

- [Man] Okay, buddy?

- [Man] Yeah, he's awake.

He's alert.

(speaking foreign language)

- [Woman] Don't move, honey.

- [Man] No, no, no.

- [Man] Hey, what's up, buddy?

- [Man] Know what happened there?

(all chattering)

(speaking foreign language)

(birds chirping)

- [Louie] July 9th, 2010.

Combat Outpost Shkarre, Panjwayi, Kandahar.

Today I went on patrol to the village of Fathullah.

Mostly a boring patrol.

Then there was an explosion.

(aircraft passing overhead)

(eerie ambient music)

September 29th, 2010.

Three missions today with medivac.

Blood and carnage.

The war has finally and fully found me.

September 23rd, 2010.

I have almost made it.

It will take so much time to move on.

The experience is beyond the photos.

(birds and crickets chirping)

October 8th, 2010.

I am on my way out of Kandahar.

It seems like a blur.

I feel relaxed.

Am I being fooled by something?

Have I just seen so much I've gone numb?

The more I see,

the less I understand.

(wind blowing)

(dramatic orchestral music)