Moscow's Graveyard

Engineer Ghafar and a couple of his gunmen were standing beside me in a wheat field when a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter roared overhead. For the pilot, there must have been something suspicious about the cluster of Afghans below in the green square; he caught a glint off one of their AK-47s, perhaps. On the ground, a wave of fear passed through Ghafar and his soldiers. During the jihad against the Soviets, Ghafar and his men had been frequently chased by helicopter gunships, and the rumbling thunder in the sky was unmistakable. The Blackhawk dropped low, its dark shadow passing over the...