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The Second Anniversary
"Don't fear the death of that which is known.
If you die to the temporal, you will become timeless." (Rumi)
In Memory of Ahmed Shah Massoud, the timeless.
Massoud at approximately 17 years old.
December 27, 1979 The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan
"A brilliant strategist and an uncompromising fighter, Massoud [was] the bane of the Soviet Army's existence and [was] largely responsible for finally driving them out of the country." (Sebastian Junger)
1989 the Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan. By 1992, Massoud was the Defense Minister for the new Afghan government.
A bloody and destructive civil war broke out. "Two commanders, Massoud and Dostum, concluded a pact to keep [a warlord named] Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ...out of Kabul. Hekmatyar responded by laying a three-year siege around the southern outskirts of the capital." (Zoran Kusovac)

Those three years of civil war laid waste to the beautiful city of Kabul and were responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and millions of refugees leaving the country.
The civil war in Afghanistan opened the path for the arrival from Pakistan of the Taliban in 1994. By 1997, the Taliban had joined forces with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization. Massoud continued to battle to drive foreign interlopers from his country.
"We told the Americans - we told everyone - that al-Qaeda was set upon a transnational program." (Dr. Abdullah Abdullah)
"If I could say one thing to President Bush, it would be that if he doesn't take care of what is happening in Afghanistan, the problem will not only hurt the Afghan people but the American people as well."
"If President Bush doesn't help us, these terrorists will damage the US and Europe very soon." (Massoud, April 2000)
"...elements in the American government were realizing how flawed and dangerous that strategy was. Sometime during 2000, they were considering another solution: Ahmed Shah Massoud." (Sebastian Junger)
"Massoud had just bought dozens of refurbished tanks from the Russians to bolster his defenses. The C.I.A. was apparently working with him directly, and Pakistan had even started taking some heat internationally for its support of the Taliban. After five years, alliances had started to shift, arms had started to floe. And on man was at the center of it all." (Sebastian Junger)
Unfortunately for the people of Afghanistan, the people of the United States, and the people of the world, help came to Massoud too late. He was assassinated on September 9, 2001.
The early site of Massoud's tomb (left) and how it appears today (right).
AHMED SHAH MASSOUD
         1953 - 2001
"Now we are all Massoud." (Massoud's aid to photographer Reza)
"There was something about him - the slow nod of his head as he listened to a question, the exhaustion and curiosity engraved on his handsome, haggard face - that made it clear we were in the presence of an extraordinary man.

I found it impossible not to listen to him when he spoke even though I didn't understand a word. I watched everything he did because I had a sense that somehow - in the way he poured his tea, in the way his hands carved the air when he talked - that there was some secret to be learned." (Sebastian Junger)
"A life with honor is followed by a death with honor. My father died to keep Afghanistan alive in history. Now it is our job to end the divisions among us because that will only pave the way for our enemies to invade us."
Elliot, Michael, Time, "They Had a Plan" August 12, 2002
Junger, Sebastian, Vanity Fair,  "Massoud's Last Conquest" February 2002
Junger, Sebastian, Adventure, "The Lion in Winter" March/April 2001

 

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