Ron O’Callaghan: Remembering a friend from Afghanistan

To The Daily Sun,

Afghanistan has been in the news of late. I love Afghanistan but have never been there, though I came close once. We were publishers of a rug journal, Oriental Rug Review, which we published from our home in New Hampton. A. W. Noor Sher was known as the dean of all the Oriental rug dealers in Kabul. He had a very large extended family, many cousins. Noor Sher decided to come to the U. S. to visit his friend George O’Bannon, who was our partner in the rug publication. O’Bannon had been in charge of Iran, Afghanistan, and Northern India for the Peace Corps. He has been long gone, now, so I can say he was a CIA officer. Noor Sher also wanted to visit many of his nephews in the States, who were all major rug dealers. We were invited to tag along on the California leg of the trip. We were shown around the cousin’s house and rather subtly my wife Lyn was relegated to stay with the females. We were taken to the garage and shown a luxury automobile with bullet holes. They said nothing about the bullet holes and I didn’t ask. It was lunchtime which turned more into dinner. Noor Sher took my hand and said, “please sit down by me.” An Afghan whispered in my ear, “he wants you to taste his drinks so he doesn’t take any alcohol.” After lunch Noor Sher said, “you will come to Kabul.” There was no question mark. ”I can’t take the time and I can’t afford the ticket price,” I said. Noor Sher opened a briefcase that he had carried around. In it was a wad of $100 bills. I could see there were also 50 or 60 Lufthansa two-way tickets. “I ship a lot of rugs to the U.S., U.K., Germany, and France. Each time I send a shipment they give me tickets.” The next day the U.S. State Department banned all travel to Afghanistan,” citing dangerous conditions.

It seems whenever Afghanistan is mentioned someone says, “the Afghans beat England, Russia and the U.S.” I agree on Russia and the U.S., but not so much on England. Queen Victoria’s troops were there to prevent Imperial Russia from acquiring a warm water naval port. Squads of British troops where brushed off hilltops by hundreds of Afghan fighters. But, Russia never got to the Indian Ocean.

Ron O’Callaghan

Moultonborogh