ABSTRACT

The author was the leader of a WFP convoy traveling from Bamiyan in central Afghanistan to deliver food in a valley controlled by the Taliban. He and his team reached a village where we were summoned to the quarters of the local commander. He and his entourage were waiting in the garden. The meeting started courteously enough but he could see from the faces of our local escorts that trouble was brewing. The commander informed them that he was going to take one truckload of food for his village. He put forward the usual reasons why he couldn’t and the discussion grew very heated.