افغانستان – Тоҷикистон

I’ve been to the Afghan-Tajik border twice, and walking across it into Afghanistan — a war zone — is an experience unlike any other. This week, Russia and Tajikistan have been conducting “large-scale military drills” near the Tajik-Afghan border involving 50,000 Tajik troops and 2,000 Russian troops. As someone who has lived in Tajikistan for extended periods of time and traveled through Afghanistan, I’m hoping that Tajikistan doesn’t get pulled into the never-ending conflict next door. While Tina Fey’s new movie, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (WTF), takes Afghanistan as its comedic centerpiece, experiencing the harsh realities of life in a war zone is no laughing matter — the compounded suffering that I witnessed in Afghanistan from three decades of war was truly heartbreaking and horrifying…