Luke Basso has been producing documentary short films on veterans and military history since he was in high school. He recently returned from Afghanistan and tells WAMC North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley he was one of the first Americans to visit the Middle Eastern nation since the Taliban took over in 2021, following the departure of foreign troops.
As a career I potentially want to do something in media or journalism. Potentially a national security correspondent. Maybe a war correspondent, but I’m not too sure about that. Another reason I went is I wasn’t to expand my You Tube channel even more. Mostly I have American and western veterans as historical witnesses. But I want to hear what the other side has to say. This is what journalism and history is all about: hearing what all sides have to say. Third of all, I was given the opportunity by my friend Lord Myles who is giving tours of the country and I was going to take that up and very few people have that opportunity to go to a country like this with everything provided that I needed. I got everything I needed. I would say the red carpet was rolled out for me in Afghanistan despite it being Taliban controlled.
Luke, you planned this trip secretly.
Yes.
Why?
Just because I knew all the negative backlash I would get and people didn’t know the context or the planning. People tried intervening and I when would tell them I just didn’t want people messing up. Even though they try to do it for my safety, I didn’t want them getting involved because I knew they’d mess it up and it would put me in danger.
So, Luke Basso, you went to Afghanistan. What did you do and where did you go?
The stuff I did there. I got some good interviews for my You Tube channel. I got a tour of a lot of the historic sites of the country. I got to see what Afghan culture was like. I got to learn about Afghan history. I got to meet a lot of the locals and a lot of Taliban soldiers and officials. They treated me very well. I’ll say this. I acknowledge all the stuff they did in the past and how they treated our soldiers, sailors and airmen and our allies and the people of Afghanistan. I acknowledge the horrible things they done. But they showed me the most respect I could ever ask for as a foreigner. They gave me everything I needed. They want tourists there. They want to make themselves look good and I have a feeling that they treated me better than most of their own people there. Like I said everything I needed was provided for me. Even though the living conditions weren’t the best, we’d be sleeping on the floor sometimes with no running water, they would try their best to make it doable for me.
What sorts of things did you see?
Not just Kabul but most of Afghanistan, they’re a hundred years behind, hundreds of years behind on pretty much everything. That’s one of the most isolated countries in the world with relations with very few countries. So they’re just living on what they have. There’s still a lot of leftover stuff just from the war. I would see destroyed tanks on the side of the road. I would see buildings that had been shot out or blown up and it’s left. They didn’t bother to repair. Everyone there, especially in Kabul, has been affected by the war someway or another. They just live day by day. And a lot of them told me that they would join the Taliban when they were like 10 or 12 years old. Sometimes it was just because they didn’t want any foreign invaders in their country. Some of them just did just because they wanted to get out of the situation they were in. Afghanistan’s been in war for decades. This is all they know since they were 10 – 12 years old they were learning how to shoot guns and sword fight.
What's the biggest thing that struck you when you were in Afghanistan?
Well, the way I was treated by everyone. I was shown the highest amount of respect by everyone. I would tell them I'm an American and they were grateful that was in their country. And they were surprised that an American has returned. Taliban and civilians, they were happy to meet me. Since the war ended, a lot of them have put that behind them. That surprised me, too.
I'm curious if you'd consider going back to Afghanistan.
I would because originally the trip was supposed to 10 days. It ended up being six. But there's a lot, there's a lot more stuff that I wasn't able to finish when I was over there. So if I do go back I'm going to try to go back in the next five years because Kabul is going to be out of water in five years. And they've all just accepted it and I'd rather be there when there's just basic necessities. Nnecessities to survive there. So if I'm going to go back it should be the next five years, because there's still some people who I want to interview and some stuff we weren't able to go to. We were supposed to go to Tora Bora, which is where Bin Laden, Osama Bin Laden, is from and his compound’s still there. And they give tours there and people are allowed to go there. We weren't able to go there.
Luke Basso, Afghanistan is considered, for women, to be the most dangerous country on the planet. What did you see? Did you interact with any women?
I still acknowledge and I know about how the, how horrible the oppression of woman is there. But from what I saw, I think it might be getting a little better because I saw a woman driving a car. I saw them owning shops. I saw them without their husbands in public. And I would ask Taliban guys I thought that wasn't allowed here and they’re like, no, that's allowed. What do you mean? So from what I saw it's getting a little better, just slowly. I'm guessing over the next few decades it’s going to be coming more open, but it's a very slow process. But I was speechless. I didn't think I would see any of that. One thing that I won't say scared me, but it just like they reminded me that, oh yeah, Afghanistan still is dangerous. They didn't tell me the last day I was there. They're like Luke we didn't want to scare you but a bomb almost went off a few blocks away from us. And I was like, wait, what? They're like, yeah don't worry about it. That's been dealt with.
Do you plan to put any videos from Afghanistan on your website?
I have two interviews. I interviewed the (unintelligible) the mujahideen, which was the group that emerged when the Soviets invaded back in the 80s and he later became a Taliban fighter. I interviewed another guy who knew Bin Laden personally. He was a Mujahideen fighter and then became Taliban and to both those people.
Luke Basso will post his documentary videos from Afghanistan to his You Tube channel after he completes translations.
