What an author learned while 'Bumbling Through the Hindu Kush' in 1991

There are lots of travelogues out there, including a good many that take you to places where traveling is hard — or even outright dangerous. But there are few spots on earth that fit both those descriptions quite as well as Afghanistan. In 1991. In the middle of a civil war between the remnants of the Soviet-backed government and pretty much the entire rest of the country.

Chris Woolf, author of "Bumbling Through The Hindu Kush: A Memoir of Fear and Kindness in Afghanistan," recently joined Morning Edition to talk about what that trip 30 years ago might say about Afghanistan today and the Afghan refugees who are now just coming to Massachusetts. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

Aaron Schachter: OK, Chris, so let's start with the basic, unavoidable question. What the heck were you doing in Afghanistan in the middle of a civil war?

Chris Woolf: Well, it wasn't just a bad idea for a vacation, Aaron. I actually thought it might be good for my career. I was working for the BBC World Service already, and I was at that point in my career where I thought it would be smart to see if I would like the life of a foreign correspondent. So I went to visit my buddy, who was stationed in Kabul, just to try it out.

Schachter: OK, so pretty soon after you got there, you hitched a ride out of Kabul on an aid convoy, and you had some real jaw-dropping adventures, both terrifying and touching, which is reflected in the title of your book. What did you learn from those adventures about Afghanistan and the Afghan people?

Woolf: I think the thing that most stays with me is that there isn't one Afghanistan. The country is a mosaic of different peoples and interests and factions and powers. For example, there were people who were religious leaders and yet had been co-opted by the communist government because they [the government] could give them support in terms of revenue and foot soldiers in their locality. And, you know, just to see that kind of thing firsthand is bewildering to a Westerner.

And at the same time, you know, it seems obvious as well when you see it taking place, that different sides are cutting deals with each other. We had one point where we forced two sides that were fighting to organize a cease fire. And this one, the aid convoy leader told us, was relatively easy to arrange because the two fighting commanders were cousins. I can see it now, this little Kiwi guy [New Zealander], who was a bit of a bulldog personality, just bamboozling these two commanders to cease fire so we could get through with our supplies that were needed in the North.

Schachter: So the two couldn't just share the valley?

Woolf: Well, yes and no. But you know, they have to put on a show of fighting now and then. So again, that's another thing you learn about the country, is that a lot of what you see is not really what's going on. And I think anyone who spends any time there, especially if they spend time outside the wire, as you might say — outside of the safely held government areas — is going to learn very quickly the realities of the situation.

Schachter: Chris, you and I worked together at the GBH and PRX program The World until a few years ago, and I know you're something of an historian, especially when it comes to things military. Given your experience in Afghanistan and your experience in general reporting on world affairs, how did American military leaders — and leaders in general — get things so wrong?

Woolf: Well, that's a huge question. I think partly inertia — we were there, so we stayed — I think that was the most fundamental problem.

I actually saw no reason for the West to stay involved in Afghanistan directly after the fall of the Taliban regime at the end of 2001. It would have been obviously a lot smarter to just assemble — as we had done — a coalition of Afghans opposed to the Taliban. And I was thinking, 'Well, why not just keep them strong enough to keep the Taliban out, or at least weak?' But for some reason, once we were in we stayed there, and I could never see a purpose there. So, I can't blame the military or even the officials who tried to make it work. It's really a failure of vision at the top in terms of what it is we were trying to do. And to me, it seemed like pure hubris to try and remake a country like Afghanistan in our image, when it is in many ways very alien to our experiences and our culture. So it was always going to be an uphill struggle.

And of course, the one thing that Afghans can agree on is that they don't like foreigners telling them what to do. That was another fundamental mistake. Having foreign troops there at all is going to create opposition. You know, it seems for anyone who knows the country knows it's going to be creating problems, however benevolent the foreigners may be, and how much they may be really sincerely trying to help the country. You know, nobody here would like foreigners coming in with arms telling us what to do, however beneficially. They're still going to be acting as though they run the place, and that's that's going to put people's backs up.

Schachter: Now, given what you know about the mujahideen — the Holy Warriors or Islamic rebels in Afghanistan — and what you know of the history of conflict in that country, is there any way to predict where things might go now, with the Taliban in charge?

Woolf: There are huge constituencies in Afghanistan that are repelled by the Taliban's ideology. The Taliban is a legitimate force, but so many people in the cities, so many of the educated people, so many of the women, so many of the minorities that the Taliban are hostile to. ... My hope is that eventually these constituencies will find themselves strong enough to force an accommodation with the Taliban and build a country that's more just and more inclusive.

Schachter: In the meantime, though, we will likely see more refugees, likely many more refugees, including here in Massachusetts. How do you think we would be best equipped to to handle the difference in experience and culture [between us and them] that you witnessed?

Woolf: It's not just the cultural differences. Let's remember a lot of these people will have suffered trauma and they will also have relatives and close friends and family left behind who are still in danger. And that kind of stress and trauma is going to be one of the foremost things that they'll be bringing with them. But then culturally, there's also going to be a lot of shocks as well. For example, a lot of women in a lot of parts of Afghanistan are more sequestered. And they are expected to have a less visible profile, especially in the countryside. It's just the culture. So that's going to be a challenge to try and figure out a way forward. But in many other ways, they're just people who want ordinary things for themselves: some security, somewhere to live and jobs to be able to provide for their families. So in some ways, it's going to be very difficult for them and in other ways, it's not going to be so challenging.

Chris Woofe is author of "Bumbling Through the Hindu Kush: A Memoir of Fear and Kindness in Afghanistan."