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Bed that saved me from the Taliban

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Bed that saved me from the Taliban

#61

Post by ericboehs »

bflesch wrote: post #28

Great article. But one detail seems to be wrong: It says "I had to do something, so I went out on to the balcony. I could see the fire on __my left hand side__, it was heavy and I realised that if it reached my room I wasn't going to survive." The provided image circles the balcony on the right hand side of the fire, so it would have been either his right hand side where he saw the fire, the image has been mirrored,…

I saw that too but later in the article it gets explained.

> early in the morning the international forces began to fire from a tank into the rooms. They concentrated on room 521, the one next door to me

The blackened rooms to his right aren't the fire he was talking about. There must have been another fire out of view of this picture.

Re: Bed that saved me from the Taliban

#62

Post by Pigo »

fb03 wrote: post #6

It's nice when something is so well written that it almost literally transports you to that moment. I was agitated to know what would happen next as the narrative unfolded. Can recommend.

The story just kept going. I thought it would be over after the initial hiding under the bed and the men leaving his room, but it was only the beginning. It's amazing this man is still alive.

Re: Bed that saved me from the Taliban

#63

Post by sascha_sl »

probably_wrong wrote: post #47
wiradikusuma wrote: post #37

"Parts of the hotel were able to re-open two months after the attack" — what? Curious, what would be the logical explanation for that? I mean, for starters nobody would want to work there, and nobody would want to _stay_ there. Right?

There's an old story (that I can't find right now) about a bank employee that falls for a scam that costs the company hundreds of thousands. He goes to his boss and says "I guess you will be expecting my resignation", to which the boss replies "Resign? I just spent thousands of dollars training you!". I would apply the same line of thought here: I don't think this hotel is any more insecure that any other. In fact, I…

It seems to be a popular target.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Inter-Continental_Hotel_K...

Re: Bed that saved me from the Taliban

#64

Post by [deleted] »

bflesch wrote: post #28

Great article. But one detail seems to be wrong: It says "I had to do something, so I went out on to the balcony. I could see the fire on __my left hand side__, it was heavy and I realised that if it reached my room I wasn't going to survive." The provided image circles the balcony on the right hand side of the fire, so it would have been either his right hand side where he saw the fire, the image has been mirrored,…

[deleted]

Re: Bed that saved me from the Taliban

#65

Post by baybal2 »

darkpuma wrote: post #39
democracy wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tomatos, tomatoes - same tribes doing the same thing (whatever in that particular year they were called), and yes they were trained in Pakistan (or Pakistani-controlled area or whatever - there are no real borders there) and yes, they were getting CIA help.

You should be aware that the Soviet-Afghan War started as an Afghan Civil War, between the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (the ruling Afghani communists) and the Afghani civilian populace who were being brutally repressed under that government. It was that communist government that requested Soviet intervention in Afghanistan; an invitation that the Soviets declined for over a year. It was the opinion of th…

> You should be aware that the Soviet-Afghan War started as an Afghan Civil War, between the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (the ruling Afghani communists) and the Afghani civilian populace who were being brutally repressed under that government.

And that itself was a continuation of a slow brewing civil conflict going since colonial times in mid 19th century.

Re: Bed that saved me from the Taliban

#66

Post by m3kw9 »

sharpneli wrote: post #50
sjroot wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder why they shot at the tidy bed but not the unkempt one. The narrator seems to imply he knew hiding under the unkempt one was the better option. Why is that ? I wondered this as well. He did say he has had significant training, but honestly, I think this was just pure luck.

When breaking places the intact things are broken first. Breaking an already broken vase just isn’t the same. Just my hunch at least. Untidy bed is already ”broken”.

To me it’s very close to 50/50 maybe 55/44 but maybe that is the difference.

Re: Bed that saved me from the Taliban

#67

Post by m3kw9 »

elliekelly wrote: post #35
sjroot wrote: post #8

Incredible, to be hiding under one of two beds in his hotel room, and having the other bed being searched and shot at by the Taliban. > Don't concentrate only on work, stressful and bad things in your life. Concentrate instead on creating good moments and being around good people, because life is so beautiful.

And to have the bad guy quite literally sitting on top of you. I cannot imagine the mental fortitude it takes to maintain your composure to keep perfectly still and silent in that situation.

Other things that could have killed him was a cough or a sneeze

Re: Bed that saved me from the Taliban

#68

Post by elliekelly »

fxfan wrote: post #58
elliekelly wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spent a year as "nomad" traveling the world. A friend of mine who works for the State Department told me to always "stay where other Americans aren't."

Can you please elaborate? I've always been suggested to stay in good american chains- hilton et al

I think no matter where you travel if you're seen to be a tourist some people will see you as a "target" for petty crime of opportunity like pickpocketing. But in some countries being an American could make you the target of a violent crime committed by a political/ideological extremist. When I was in Marseille, for example, several American students studying abroad were the target of an acid attack.

I suppose the thinking goes that if one American is a potential target for an opportunistic violent extremist than a place that's frequently host to groups of Americans is perhaps more likely to be a target for a coordinated attack.

It might or might not be true but for the most part it wasn't particularly difficult to avoid my fellow Americans while traveling anyway. We tend to take business trips abroad but not many weeks-long exploratory vacations. Plus, you can't really get much of a feel for the country you're in from a Hilton now can you?

Edit: To add that I don't want to be fear-mongering. I think a lot of my friends and family thought I was taking a "risk" by traveling to some of the countries I went to and for the most part I felt just as safe in the Middle East as I did in New Orleans. I don't think fear should stop anyone from traveling but I also think it's wise to be mindful of some of the unfortunate realities of the world in which we live.

Re: Bed that saved me from the Taliban

#69

Post by fxfan »

baybal2 wrote: post #60
fxfan wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sounded like one of the few sane voices in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18953040 I have no other way of discussing this further since that comment is too down the page for me to expect you to see replies to- but what would be a good "front-end framework" according to you? And if I may ask- what do you use?

Well, on that... I will chose Vue for something relatively undemanding just for the sake of convenience, and availability of devs. For something more performance critical, S.js + surplus looks to me the best library around today that provides lightweight data binding, templating and reactivity without feature bloat.

Thank you- I do care a lot about performance. About S.js, wow, that does look amazingly simple- just my type. I went through your comments (sorry if that's not appropriate) and it seemed to me that you're mostly into electronics. But your comment about js seemed well-informed after some other research I did. So thanks a lot, I'm surprised that I never learned this before.

Re: Bed that saved me from the Taliban

#70

Post by Pica_soO »

pizza wrote: post #27

Worth mentioning that the Taliban has just conducted another terrible attack this morning > The Wardak attack is turning into the single deadliest attack against the Afghan intelligence in the past 17 yrs. We are hearing now at least 40 dead more than 50 wounded. (some officials still insist not all are NDS officers - includes local upriser militias they were training) https://twitter.com/MujMash/status/1087338155072…

Afghanistan the graveyard of empires. They called and America came.

None of the politicians seem to grasp what they are fighting is not only a ideology, but also the human condition, driven to a near constant edge of treason and combat.

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