On March 4, 2009, Canadian soldier David Macdonald pulled ahead of his convoy on its way into Kandahar to ensure that a bridge ahead was safe. Fourteen days later he came out of a coma in a German hospital bed. “I woke up … (and ) they told me about my injuries. I asked them where my platoon was and they said they were still back in Afghanistan,” MacDonald said. “That was far worse than hearing about any injuries I had.”

Murray Brewster remembers the last interview he conducted with the mayor of Kandahar. The award-winning war correspondent from Canada was standing with Mayor Ghulam Haidar Hameedi on the steps of the governor’s palace in Kandahar. Suddenly, Brewster noticed three men striding across the lawn in front of them.