For a few weeks, between mid-April and early May, I was in Bagram, thirty miles north of Kabul, to cover the war. At about six o'clock on most evenings I went for a run. From our tents in Viper City I would jog past the 10th Mountain Division, through the lines of the 101st Airborne's Quick Reaction Force, past the long queue for dinner, past the stinking row of portakabins and out onto the main road through the base. The road had recently been named Disney Drive, in the memory of 21-year-old Specialist Jason Disney, of the 7th Transportation Battalion of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, who was killed in a welding accident on the base on 13 February. According to the new commemorative sign planted in the concrete, his 'dedication, diligence and dogged determination mark him as one of America's finest and is reflective of the warrior spirit and warrior pride'.

LRB 23 May 2002 | PDF Download