‘Writing Is My Medicine:’ A Veteran Reflects on the Horrors of Our Evacuation from Afghanistan

Photo: Camille Wright Felton

Will Selber is a former Middle East Foreign Area Officer with 20 years of experience in the intelligence community. He served for nearly 1500 days in Iraq and Afghanistan during heavy combat operations.

Now retired, his life's mission is to shed light on the current situation in Afghanistan and help many of the U.S. allies escape the country and the Taliban. It’s grueling and heart-breaking work that requires him to make Sophie's Choice-like decisions about who lives and dies. He now writes about his experiences for such publications as The Bulwark.

In our interview, we touch on why he joined the Air Force, the horrors he saw in Iraq and then Afghanistan, the mental heath challenges he’s had to face, how writing has become therapy, his upcoming trip to Israel, what we don’t understand about groups such as the Taliban and Hamas, and his hope for the future of Afghanistan.