Ashley Jackson

3. Then maybe the bit about the former security officer for the "legendary" Ahmad Shah Massoud he flew in from London to provide security for his "reporting trip," all thoroughly documented, I should add, by a personal videographer.

4. (NB. My issue is with the use of the fawning adjective "legendary," even in an opinion piece, not whether such a superlative is fitting or not).

5. Then there's this: "Through the window of my vehicle I see an agitated man who, noticing us, makes the gesture of slitting his throat. A ragged peddler... pretends to train a gun on our convoy. Another sees that we’re photographing him and spits in our direction."

6. I can't remember any of the above happening to me on any one of the couple of thousand days I've spent in Afghanistan. But @BHL copped all three in a day! What's important, though, is that readers know how brave @BHL is.

7. And, right on queue: "... our surroundings have become worrisome. We pass drugged-out adolescents, women encased in burqas. An informer comes to tell Mr. Hayat that people are beginning to wonder about the foreigner who is asking impertinent questions."

8. Then this: rarer than the snow leopard, the humble-brag-self-aggrandisement combo: "The Afghan security services being full of double agents, the news of our movement leaked. So now it’s battle stations on pro-Taliban social networks."

9. Followed closely by a bemusing account of his use of an ANSF aircraft (in a country at war) to facilitate a glad-handing session in Panjshir: "Along the road... enemy checkpoints are a possibility. Mr. Mohseni, the TOLONews owner, has secured a helicopter, which flies us..."

10. And, why let facts get in the way of a better story: "... the Taliban—the foe that sent two fake journalists armed with a rigged camera to assassinate Massoud." I'm only halfway through the piece here, but you get the picture.