An Afghan journalist, now a refugee, is rebuilding life in 'big-hearted' Kansas City

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Samia supported me a lot during this time. I hope we will be together soon and make our dreams come true. I hope my friends in the United States will help me move her from India, and my mother, Fatima Rahimi, and my sisters from Afghanistan. I really appreciate my wife, my family and all my friends.

I want to be a journalist as I was before, but I have to be patient. I know the media experience I brought from Afghanistan is different from what I will need to join this profession in the United States. I hope I will have the opportunity to continue my education. I was a war correspondent for many years, so I know the pain and suffering caused by war.

Afghanistan lost everything: human rights, women's rights, civil liberties, the national army, the national police. But the future can still be ours. The people of Afghanistan are still waiting for the international community and the United States of America. An unstable Afghanistan with a terrorist regime is not in the interest of the future of the world.

I want to be the voice of Afghanistan, a voice to be heard. Afghanistan does not have good neighbors — everyone sees Afghanistan with greedy eyes. But the future is in the hands of us humans. We have different experiences, but what we have in common is our future."