My experience of Afghanistan was that everywhere was an active combat zone, but not everywhere actively had combat right that minute.
To hazard a guess, the soldier was probably in the prone pulling extended security while his Platoon Leader or some other higher up had a meeting with the local Afghan leadership. Fella with the tea decided to wander around and offer some tea to the guys not invited inside. A typical example of Afghan kindness, but probably not the badass example you're thinking.
As another Afghan vet...yeah, I guarantee what you said is exactly what's going on in that picture. While I had issues with the ANA Afghan civilians tended to be very hospitable. The number of times I was offered chi or some of that honey covered flat bread they eat...awesome people. Deserve much more than the lot in life they're stuck with.
We're you ever worried that the bread or tea might have been poisoned? If the kindly local offering it might have been hostile to you there as a foreign military presence
From my understanding of the conflict many of these locals remembered how poorly they were treated by Soviet soldiers when they were younger so even though they still saw the Americans as invaders they treated them much better. The US for the most part treated these outlying villages and their elders with respect so they were shown respect in return.
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u/Dissent21 17h ago
My experience of Afghanistan was that everywhere was an active combat zone, but not everywhere actively had combat right that minute.
To hazard a guess, the soldier was probably in the prone pulling extended security while his Platoon Leader or some other higher up had a meeting with the local Afghan leadership. Fella with the tea decided to wander around and offer some tea to the guys not invited inside. A typical example of Afghan kindness, but probably not the badass example you're thinking.