{"id":31474,"date":"2022-10-07T01:11:14","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T01:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/10\/07\/marine-who-barely-avoided-taliban-bullet-talks-war-and-life-beyond\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T21:09:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T21:09:06","slug":"marine-who-barely-avoided-taliban-bullet-talks-war-and-life-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/veterans\/2022\/10\/07\/marine-who-barely-avoided-taliban-bullet-talks-war-and-life-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine who barely avoided Taliban bullet talks war and life beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Marine sergeant was turned into a visual icon when, in May 2008, Taliban fire just missed his head and a Reuters photographer captured the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s a series of images that ended up in newspapers across the world: Rifle in hand, Bill Bee cringed as the air around him filled with debris from the muddy wall in front of him. He wasn\u2019t wearing a helmet or Kevlar vest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, as Bee recounts in his new memoir, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Shot-Harrowing-Journey-Marine-Terror\/dp\/163758301X\" target=\"_blank\">The Shot: The Harrowing Journey of a Marine in the War on Terror,\u201d <\/a>there is much more to his story than those photos taken in Afghanistan\u2019s Helmand province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Retired U.S. Marine Sgt. Billy Bee and Reuters photographer Goran Tomasevic are men united by war, meeting again as America\u2019s messy and tragic involvement in Afghanistan comes to an end, 20 years after 9\/11 set it all in motion <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KU4vp2WkeV\">https:\/\/t.co\/KU4vp2WkeV<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8wjLtAAHsz\">pic.twitter.com\/8wjLtAAHsz<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Reuters (@Reuters) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Reuters\/status\/1435263924014919681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 7, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Raised in a trailer park in rural Ohio, Bee signed up with a Marine recruiter before he even had finished high school. He was sent to Afghanistan within months of the 9\/11 attacks and would end up completing four deployments there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At some points, he and his Marines were engaging in multiple firefights a day. In his memoir, Bee describes killing a local Taliban commander, as well as running into a poppy field to draw out Taliban fire \u2014 a feat for which he was awarded an Achievement Medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the book is not all about acts of valor and successes in battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bee describes with unflinching detail the uncomfortable conditions \u2015 including 120-degree weather and rotting underwear \u2015 that he encountered in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And far worse than the physical discomfort was the deaths of his fellow Marines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In June 2010, Bee led two young sergeants, Derek Shanfield and Zach Walters, into a building in Afghanistan\u2019s Marjah during a patrol. An improvised explosive device went off while they were in the building, killing Shanfield and Walters and leaving Bee with a severe traumatic brain injury. Their deaths devastated Bee, who wrote that he felt he was responsible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bee\u2019s troubles did not end when he returned to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reeling from post-traumatic stress disorder and neurological issues, Bee began drinking heavily and became prone to angry outbursts. He even attempted suicide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He left the Marines in 2013 as a staff sergeant and began teaching Veterans Affairs classes for troops leaving service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, he writes, he wasn\u2019t receiving appropriate health care and benefits from the VA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, Bee writes in \u201cThe Shot,\u201d he is better able to manage his PTSD thanks to an eye therapy he received in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Media attention to his story has led to smoother interactions with the VA, and he was awarded a Purple Heart in 2016. In 2019, he took on a job operating motorized targets for Marine training, which he called \u201cthe coolest job out there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bee worked with Wills Robinson, an editor at Daily Mail Online to write \u201cThe Shot,\u201d which was published by Knox Press on Sept. 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Marine Corps Times spoke with Bee about the famous photographs, the less famous events that shaped his life and the process of turning it all into a memoir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Editor\u2019s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Q. Why did you decide to write this book?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A. Initially, it came from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-3360338\/It-s-iconic-image-War-Terror-heroic-Marine-captured-fighting-Taliban-without-helmet-flashbacks-violent-outbursts-tried-kill-won-t-VA-help-needs.html\" target=\"_blank\">the article<\/a> that Wills wrote in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I had been approached by media about talking to them about the picture before, but I never really wanted to. I\u2019m a very introverted person, let\u2019s put it that way. But Wills wrote me a letter, like a handwritten letter, and I held on to it, because who writes a letter anymore? One week, I had received a bill from the VA for some stuff that should have been covered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That was the straw that broke the camel\u2019s back. I called him up, and I was like, \u201cMan, I\u2019ll be more than happy to talk to you about everything, but I\u2019m gonna be honest about this s&#8211;t.\u201d And that\u2019s basically what I shot for. It didn\u2019t matter what question he asked; it didn\u2019t matter what we were talking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Q. Who is the intended audience of the book?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A. I\u2019d say a combination of service members and veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I want guys who read the book to understand that there are times you need to break down and ask for help. Especially in the grunt community, there\u2019s a suck-it-up mentality. You know: \u2018You\u2019ll get fixed when you\u2019re getting closer to getting out.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Guys don\u2019t take care of themselves like they should, both physically and mentally. When you just keep kicking that can down the road, eventually stuff starts going bad for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Q. In your book, you talk about some of the most formative experiences of your life prior to going to Afghanistan. One of them was 9\/11. You describe watching the attacks on TV from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. How did those attacks affect you?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A. That was probably the single most determining factor in my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because, before 9\/11, being a grunt was just, \u2018Maybe we\u2019ll see something, you know, if a war kicks off years down the road, but it\u2019s not going to happen to us.\u2019 And when that happened, that reoriented everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My first deployment, yeah, it was nice to get out there and do stuff. But my second deployment, when I started interacting with the locals in Afghanistan, was when I realized, there\u2019s actually value to what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Q. Why didn\u2019t you have your helmet and Kevlar on during the famous photo of you narrowly avoiding being shot by the Taliban?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A. That was a 2008 deployment and an extremely kinetic environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the first couple of months, it was literally house-to-house. In a setting like that, you just can\u2019t be wearing your gear 24\/7, regardless of what my wife would like to think. We\u2019d taken over a compound and we knew we were going to be there a couple of days. We got pretty ripe by then \u2014 four or five weeks at that point without a shower. So I decided to do laundry, because my socks and my pants could stand up on their own with the mud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was doing the laundry, and we heard the word that there was a Taliban marksman in the area, and when they shot at our post, that\u2019s what clued me in that something was going on. Because it wasn\u2019t 10-round bursts that those guys usually used to fire over a wall; it was just one shot out of nowhere. That was more concerning than anything. I ran over to our engineer who was sitting on the wall. There just wasn\u2019t time. I wasn\u2019t thinking about grabbing my gear; I wasn\u2019t thinking about the flak; I just wanted to check and make sure he was good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"663\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Bee-and-Goran-1.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-63658\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Bee-and-Goran-1.jpg.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Bee-and-Goran-1.jpg.jpg?resize=300,199 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Bee-and-Goran-1.jpg.jpg?resize=768,509 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bee, right, is reunited with Goran Tomasevic, the photographer who took the iconic photos of his brush with death, in Marjah, Afghanistan, in 2010. (Courtesy photo from Bill Bee)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Q. When Reuters photographer Goran Tomasevic showed you the photograph, you said your first reaction was to laugh. Why?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A. Probably a little bit of shock. You know, I had just talked myself out of the stretcher at that point. Doc was still checking on me to make sure I was good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was a combination of the shock of that picture, how hard Goran was laughing, just the whole situation \u2014 the ridiculousness of it. That\u2019s kind of what struck me. Plus, I mean, just coming down off the adrenaline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Q. How do you feel when you look back on your service in the Marine Corps?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A. It\u2019s good and bad. It\u2019s the \u201cIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times\u201d kind of deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because some of the best times of my life were in the Marine Corps, but some of the worst times, too. It wouldn\u2019t necessarily be what you think. Being deployed, being in firefights \u2014 I had an absolute blast doing that stuff. That was fun as hell, especially when none of our guys were getting hit. But the bad times side of it: seeing some stuff that you really don\u2019t want to see, dealing with some stuff that you really don\u2019t want to deal with. It don\u2019t matter how hard you think you are at the time \u2014 it just gets to you eventually. So I can look back at pride with, \u201cI didn\u2019t just deploy, but I actually got out there and did something on those deployments.\u201d But on the flip side of the coin, it\u2019s also, for every single thing that happened, \u201cWhy did it happen that way? How could I have done it different?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Q. In the book, you\u2019re very open about your struggles with PTSD, including your challenges with drinking, angry outbursts and a suicide attempt. Some people with PTSD try to avoid thinking about traumatic memories, but you wrote a book about them. Was writing the book helpful?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A. I think it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Something that really helped me out when I first got out was teaching those [benefits briefing] classes for the VA. I was getting up in front of Marines, 30 to 50 dudes a week, and telling them about not just the issues I was having with the VA, but how those issues came about. I think being able to talk about why I was so jacked up, once a week, every week, for six years \u2014 that helped me realize that talking with people really does make a difference. And even if I can\u2019t go back in time and fix the stuff, if I can point it out to other people, like, \u201cHey, if you see this in the future\u201d \u2014 that alone is worth writing about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Q. What was the hardest part of the book to write?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A. One was talking about Shanfield and Walters, what happened down in Marjah. The other one was breaking down the issues that I was having as a person at the time. I was not a good husband; I was not a good Marine. I went through a real rough spot. Just trying to explain to Wills that this is how s&#8211;t really was, this is how I acted, it\u2019s not exactly something to be proud about. That\u2019s probably the worst part about doing the whole book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Q. Throughout \u2018The Shot,\u2019 you write glowingly about your wife, Bobbie. How does she feel about the book?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A. She has not read it, and she does not plan on reading it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s not out of spite or anything like that. It\u2019s more along the lines of, some of the stuff that I\u2019ve done, she doesn\u2019t exactly want to know about it, which I can completely understand. She\u2019s been supportive 100%. I wouldn\u2019t have my Purple Heart if it wasn\u2019t for her. I wouldn\u2019t have that retroactive retirement claim going if it wasn\u2019t for. Ah, s&#8211;t, I wouldn\u2019t be up and breathing if it wasn\u2019t for her. She\u2019s not exactly indifferent about the book. She\u2019s all about it. She\u2019s helping set up signings and stuff like that. But she also doesn\u2019t want to dive too deep into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"749\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/BobbieandIduringthePurpleHeartceremonyin20168.jfif_.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-63663\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/BobbieandIduringthePurpleHeartceremonyin20168.jfif_.jpg 500w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/BobbieandIduringthePurpleHeartceremonyin20168.jfif_.jpg?resize=200,300 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bobbie and Bill Bee kiss after the Marine received a Purple Heart in 2016. (Courtesy photo from Bill Bee)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Q. Toward the end of the book, you write that you got a great job operating robots for grunt target practice. Are you still working there?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A. I am: Marathon Targets. It\u2019s the greatest job on base. I make as much as I did as a staff sergeant, but at the same time, I don\u2019t have to deal with any of the BS of sleeping in the rain, freezing my butt off or anything like that. If it\u2019s too hot, I set the air conditioner of the truck. But I still get to work with Marines. I still get to help train them. I think it\u2019s the coolest job out there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The photos of Marine Sgt. Bill Bee&#8217;s brush with death ended up in newspapers across the world. But there&#8217;s more to his story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":63654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-post-featured-layout","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["news","your-military","home","left-column","newsletters","veterans"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"4":{"categories":["daily-news-roundup","newsletters","middle-column","home","veterans"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"5":{"categories":["daily-news-roundup","newsletters","middle-column","home","veterans"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"7":{"categories":["daily-news-roundup","newsletters","middle-column","home","veterans"],"primary_category":"veterans"}}},"categories":[101,23,92,12,25,19,69],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3360],"class_list":["post-31474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-veterans","category-your-marine-corps"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"6PEMM6OGJZHEZAWRI2ENJK3OGQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2022\/10\/07\/marine-who-barely-avoided-taliban-bullet-talks-war-and-life-beyond\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"featured-layout","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Marine who barely avoided Taliban bullet talks war and life beyond - Marine Corps Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The photos of Marine Sgt. 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But there&#039;s more to his story.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/veterans\/2022\/10\/07\/marine-who-barely-avoided-taliban-bullet-talks-war-and-life-beyond\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Marine Corps Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-10-07T01:11:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T21:09:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Irene Loewenson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Irene Loewenson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/marinecorpstimes\\\/veterans\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/07\\\/marine-who-barely-avoided-taliban-bullet-talks-war-and-life-beyond\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/marinecorpstimes\\\/veterans\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/07\\\/marine-who-barely-avoided-taliban-bullet-talks-war-and-life-beyond\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"author\": {\n\t                \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/marinecorpstimes\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"headline\": \"Marine who barely avoided Taliban bullet talks war and life beyond\",\n\t            \"datePublished\": \"2022-10-07T01:11:14+00:00\",\n\t            \"dateModified\": \"2026-08-08T21:09:06+00:00\",\n\t            \"mainEntityOfPage\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/marinecorpstimes\\\/veterans\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/07\\\/marine-who-barely-avoided-taliban-bullet-talks-war-and-life-beyond\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"wordCount\": 2014,\n\t            \"commentCount\": 0,\n\t            \"publisher\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/marinecorpstimes\\\/#organization\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"image\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/marinecorpstimes\\\/veterans\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/07\\\/marine-who-barely-avoided-taliban-bullet-talks-war-and-life-beyond\\\/#primaryimage\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"thumbnailUrl\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/2F3FA7D100000578-3360338-image-a-28_1450153052297.jpg.jpg\",\n\t            \"articleSection\": [\n\t                \"Daily News Roundup\",\n\t                \"Home\",\n\t                \"Left Column\",\n\t                \"News\",\n\t                \"Newsletters\",\n\t                \"Veterans\",\n\t                \"Your Marine Corps\"\n\t            ],\n\t            \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t            \"potentialAction\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"CommentAction\",\n\t                    \"name\": \"Comment\",\n\t                    \"target\": [\n\t                        \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/marinecorpstimes\\\/veterans\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/07\\\/marine-who-barely-avoided-taliban-bullet-talks-war-and-life-beyond\\\/#respond\"\n\t                    ]\n\t                }\n\t            ]\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"WebPage\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/marinecorpstimes\\\/veterans\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/07\\\/marine-who-barely-avoided-taliban-bullet-talks-war-and-life-beyond\\\/\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/marinecorpstimes\\\/veterans\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/07\\\/marine-who-barely-avoided-taliban-bullet-talks-war-and-life-beyond\\\/\",\n\t            \"name\": \"Marine who barely avoided Taliban bullet talks war and life beyond - 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