WarGuy

War killed my family—then it recruited me.

I was born into a war that never ended, only changed uniforms. The Cold War didn’t stay on TV for my family. It showed up at our door. One uncle was killed by the Soviets. Four more uncles and a cousin were killed by the Washington-backed Hezb-e-Islami rebels. When I was nine, I watched my last uncle, Ghulam, get shot in front of me. Years later, the Taliban took another cousin, like the list wasn’t long enough.

In the 1990s, Kabul became rockets and rubble. Our home was destroyed. When the Taliban rose in 1996, we ran to the mountains. After 9/11, American B-52s lit up the sky while my father fought on the ground as a Northern Alliance commander. At sixteen, I joined U.S. forces—hunting the same terrorists who hunted my family.

I made it to America, became a federal employee, and worked on peace from inside the system that helped shape my birthland's fate. Then 2021 hit. America pulled out. The Taliban walked back into Kabul. And my family—who had risked everything—was left behind. So I moved. I led. And I got them out before the gates closed.

WARGUY is a true story of war, betrayal, survival, and the kind of will you only learn when life gives you no other choice.