Witness to War is a documentary from CNN International in which six war correspondents -- Atia Abawi, Stan Grant, Nic Robertson, Reza Sayah, Ivan Watson, and Michael -- discuss the war in Afghanistan/Pakistan and the people and events they have covered there. These are just the segments Michael contributed; to view the entire special, go here.
Segment 1
Length: 1:11
LARGE (13.7 MB)
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SMALL (1.3 MB)
MICHAEL WARE, CNN
INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's easy to argue that
that's when 9/11 and a lot of other problems in the
region were born. When America simply walked away
once the Soviets withdrew.
Don't forget, there was a war under way in
Afghanistan at the time of 9/11. There were
front-lines active at that moment as the Taliban were
fighting other Afghans.
9/11 obviously changed everything. The reason why the
West is there is to answer a security threat being
posed by the al Qaeda organization in exporting
terrorist attacks from its planning and strategic
bases in Afghanistan and in the tribal areas of
Pakistan.
Segment 2
Length: 0:54
LARGE (10.5 MB)
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SMALL (1012 KB)
WARE: The Bush
administration shifted the focus of its
counterterrorism operations, its anti-al Qaeda
operations, its so-called "War on Terror" to Iraq.
Iraq!
We now know that there was no casus
belli for that. Al Qaeda wasn't
here. Saddam wasn't projecting a terrorist threat
beyond his immediate borders, certainly not to the
United States. Heck, the regime of Saddam Hussein
didn't even possess weapons of mass destruction. The
U.N. kept saying that.
So, like it did after the Soviet withdrawal, the
invasion of Iraq took America's eye off Afghanistan.
And America is still paying a price for that to this
day.
Segment 3
Length: 0:21
LARGE (4.2 MB)
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SMALL (416 KB)
WARE: For a year after
9/11, I lived in Kandahar, pretty much with the
Taliban. They'd changed uniforms. Their turbans
mightn't have been the same. They suddenly may have
been the chiefs of police in districts and local
administrators, but they were still the Taliban.
Segment 4
Length: 0:38
LARGE (7.3 MB)
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SMALL (720 KB)
WARE: The Afghan Taliban
is a complex beast with many, many faces and many,
many applications. One thing for sure is that it has
proven its capability to endure. What we now also
see, however, is the emergence in recent years of a
Pakistani Taliban. These are two entirely different
organizations, yet in many ways, they share a similar
philosophy and ideology, and a war-fighting
capability. In essence, the concept of the Taliban is
flourishing and growing across the border.
Segment 5
Length: 1:18
LARGE (15.1 MB)
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SMALL (1.5 MB)
WARE: Afghanistan and to
a slightly lesser degree Pakistan are places where
it's very easy to lose your life.
It was in Afghanistan where after 9/11, it was first
I had AK-47s pointed at my head. It's where I first
learned how to watch a room. Where I first learned to
pay attention to what was outside my window on the
street every day, looking for things that changed. It
was in Afghanistan that I knew that there was no one
you could trust and you're on your own. You were
going to survive by your own wit.
Segment 6
Length: 1:46
LARGE (20.6 MB)
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SMALL (1.9 MB)
WARE: The kids don't
leave you. Never.
I remember a time when I was living in Kandahar back
in 2002. It was in the first blush after the
invasion, the Taliban had only just left. I was
living in this very dingy hotel in the center of the
city. Next door was an abandoned government compound.
A displaced family moved in.
The way a lot of Afghans cut grass is by burning it.
A 6-year-old boy and his 8-year-old brother were
burning the grass. They didn't know that there was
unexploded bombs in the grass. They detonated right
next to the hotel, and we ran down and we found these
two kids. I remember by the time we took them to the
hospital, we were just covered in blood, and when we
got there, there was no medicine to give them, not
even painkillers. The boy who we watched die, I gave
him Advil because it was more than anyone else could
give him. I can still remember his brother wailing. I
remember that sound as I left that hospital. I can
remember it right now. That's kids in war.
Segment 7
Length: 0:10
LARGE (2.0 MB)
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SMALL (204 KB)
WARE: And in many ways, it's in the West's national interests to see these issues resolved. And in many ways, it's just the right thing to do.