Editor’s note: Thanks a thousand times over to Richard Johnson for sharing his reports from Kandahar with DART, giving a human dimension to the daily workings in a war zone.

Leaving Afghanistan turned out to be almost as hard as getting in. I arrived three hours early for my flight out of Kabul back to Dubai, only to find that it had flown out two hours earlier than that. Sheesh. So I got an extra night at Kabul International – thanks to Major ‘Art’ Brown of the Canadian Air Force for taking me in on zero notice. I made another flight the next morning at 4.30 a.m. and ended up back in Kandahar, I was so sure I would never be here again. Last view out the window as I headed for Dubai was of the original 1960’s Kandahar Airport terminal building now surrounded by 4 km of ISAF base in all directions. Another hop got me to Dubai where I killed ten hours in the terminal. At some point during the transfer of luggage, Dubai customs held one of my bags because of explosives residue (I blame Special Forces Operator MCpl White for letting me wrap a cake of C4 explosive in detonating cord, while I was ‘helping’ with a late night ordnance disposal, and poor hand washing habits. One more flight to Zurich, one more flight to Newark in the U.S., one more flight into Toronto, and one taxi ride home – and I was standing at my front door with 50% of my luggage. Only 43 hours after I set out.

Inside I could hear my kids running around and laughing. It felt very good to be home.

As the clock ticks toward the deadline to 2014 when the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) coalition will depart for home, there is an anxiety for people in the villages and the cities of Afghanistan. It is an uncertain, wait-and-see.

But, I think, for the Taliban, the announcement of an end date has directed their focus. For now the they are waiting patiently, doing what they can to prepare the ground for the moments after ISAF has gone; adopting tactics to sow dissent and distrust of the ruling government among the populace, while also nurturing an environment of distrust between Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and ISAF.

By the targeting of ISAF by IEDs they use the international force’s own casualty-averse, risk-averse stance against them. When an attack occurs movement is restricted and convoys don’t roll. Stopping them from working alongside and mentoring the ANSF they are supposedly trying to help.

Add to this, the rising tide of inside-the-wire attacks, and even the simplest training endeavors become a seeming potentially deadly mission, a real-life game of Russian Roulette. The ISAF response is to increase security further, distancing themselves from the people they are trying to help.

My time in Zabul Province gave me an example of how effective the Taliban tactics are; a Security Force Assistance Team (SFAT) 42 out of Camp Apache near Qalat City had been providing mentoring and support to the Afghan National Army’s 6th Kandak. The 6th Kandak’s mission was to wrest control from the Taliban of a key logistics route along the Arghandab Valley. A single road led from the city of Qalat into the Mizan Valley and then on down to the Arghandab River.

The mission was seemingly successful with the 6th Kandak rousting of the Taliban from the Mizan Valley with SFAT 42 doing nothing more than providing advice and air support when required. A perfect example of coordination while gradually ceding control to the Afghan Army.

But on the road into Mizan, three ISAF convoys detonated four IEDs, all less than 100 metres from an Afghan National Police (ANP) checkpoint. None of the ANA convoys struck an IED. And then two days later a so-called ‘green on blue’ attack in the Mizan Valley left four U.S. soldiers and an ANP dead. Five other ANP strangely went missing....

Ask any Canadian working in Afghanistan as part of Operation Attention – on the record – how things are going, and they’ll reflect on the positive. You will hear how deadlines are being met, targets surpassed, quality improved, and goals achieved despite multiple challenges. It is all true – the work being accomplished by the small number of dedicated professionals and support staff that we have on the ground seems like a biblical miracle.

Turn the microphone off, and the sentiment shifts. Talk to anyone outside of headquarters elements — people in direct contact with the same surpassed targets, achieved goals, and multitude of challenges – and they will talk – regardless of rank – of an underlying feeling of unease about the future for Afghans.

“When we leave, I am worried for them. I am worried that someone else will take over or that some of the ANA will turn, but I am hoping that the work we are doing will counter that, and I hope that we are training ethical leaders who will remain patriotic for Afghanistan instead of for themselves,” said Canadian Lt. Alex J. Buck.