Korea is often called the “Land of the Morning Calm.” It’s a country where you notice the filth and the smog on your first trip and you can’t imagine why you ever thought it was a good idea to visit. Then you meet the people and you walk among their culture and you get a sense there is something deeper beneath the surface, and before you know it, the smog doesn’t matter and the filth is gone—and in its place there is incredible beauty. The sun rises first over Japan, and as Korea is waiting for the earth to spin, for streaks of light to brighten its eastern sky, in that quiet moment there is a calmness that makes Korea the most beautiful country in the world.

~ Tucker Elliot

Tucker Elliot 9 11 Afghanistan Dodds Education Germany Iraq Korea Military Terrorism Tucker Elliot

The only thing worse than his arrogance was his incompetence. He was a bully, behaving like an ass. I saw Angel though, not him. The memorial was right there, just outside the window. It’s in the flowers, and it makes me angry. Angel liked to sit on the couch, watch TV, eat chips. She hated outside. Maybe I should have been a bully and an ass to Angel’s parents. Maybe Angel and Grace would still be alive if I’d behaved like this piece of shit teacher.

~ Tucker Elliot

Tucker Elliot 9 11 9 11 01 Afghanistan Dodds Education Germany Iraq Korea Military Terrorism Tucker Elliot

We could never go back to how things were on the day before 9/11, but maybe I could go back to who I was.

~ Tucker Elliot

Tucker Elliot 9 11 Afghanistan Dodds Education Germany Iraq Korea Military Terrorism Tucker Elliot

I stood with my mom in the cemetery. She felt terrible pain. My grandmother is with God. My mom has to continue living. It’s not so easy, moving forward.

~ Tucker Elliot

Tucker Elliot 9 11 Afghanistan Dodds Education Germany Iraq Korea Military Terrorism Tucker Elliot

Ahead in the distance we could see the main gate, but there was a sea of cars, none moving, people standing, milling around, waiting nervously, perhaps fearfully, as heavily armed MPs and military working dogs searched every square inch of every vehicle, searched every bag on every person, all the while keeping a vigilant eye on the long alley we were stuck in, and on the hundreds of rooftops that overlooked that alley, wary but aware that there were people out there who would gladly hurt us again if given the chance.

~ Tucker Elliot

Tucker Elliot 9 11 Afghanistan Dodds Education Germany Iraq Korea Military Terrorism Tucker Elliot

In Korea I’d been so afraid that Sami would lose her dad. She did, but she didn’t get a flag. He went to Doha, then to Baghdad, then to Kabul, then to someplace else, and then to a different someplace else, on and on. He’d come home, leave again, come home, leave again, until one day he came home a different person altogether. Sami lost Angel, lost her family, and then she lost herself.

~ Tucker Elliot

Tucker Elliot 9 11 Afghanistan Dodds Education Germany Iraq Korea Military Terrorism Tucker Elliot

There are more good people than bad people, and overall there’s more that’s good in the world than there is that’s bad. We just need to hear about it, we just need to see it.

~ Tucker Elliot

Tucker Elliot 9 11 9 11 10Th Anniversary Afghanistan Dodds Education Germany Iraq Korea Military Terrorism Tucker Elliot

DPRK translates to Democratic People’s Republic of Korea—and if the words Democratic and Republic sound like a good thing, well, it’s oxymoronic because the Korea we’re talking about here is the communist one in the North, and when I said the pastor’s father was their guest, what I really meant is he was shot down, captured, tortured, and held prisoner by a depraved enemy in what today can only be described as a failed state.

~ Tucker Elliot

Tucker Elliot 9 11 Afghanistan Dodds Education Germany Iraq Korea Military Terrorism Tucker Elliot

The look of a smug teacher is priceless.

~ Tucker Elliot

Tucker Elliot 9 11 Afghanistan Dodds Education Germany Iraq Korea Military Terrorism Tucker Elliot

For your own security it’s imperative you blend in with the native population.

~ Tucker Elliot

Tucker Elliot 9 11 Afghanistan Dodds Education Germany Iraq Korea Military Terrorism Tucker Elliot

It felt like we were reliving the first day of the school year, when students and teachers do the get-to-know-you dance—teachers tell students something about who they are, students pretend to care, and then vice-versa.

~ Tucker Elliot

Tucker Elliot 9 11 9 11 01 Afghanistan Dodds Education Germany Iraq Korea Military Terrorism Tucker Elliot

The simple and terrifying reality, forbidden from discussion in America, was that despite spending $600 billion a year on the military, despite having the best fighting force the world had ever known, they were getting their asses kicked by illiterate peasants who made bombs out of manure and wood.

~ Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Afghanistan Government Spending Ied Insurgency Insurgent Military Politics Us War

Troops are everywhere in their modern, digital camouflage, designed to blend in anywhere at any time. Yet at night we wear bright yellow reflective belts.

~ Glenn Dean

Glenn Dean Afghanistan Military

I looked westward and marveled that, somewhere over those mountains, Kabul still existed. It really existed, not just as an old memory, or as the heading of an AP story on page 15 of the San Francisco Chronicle.

~ Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini Afghanistan Kabul Patriotism

If you have a problem with me, it is OK, because Mullah Omar does too.

~ M.f. Moonzajer

M.f. Moonzajer Afghanistan Funny Joke Mullah Omar Problem Taliban