REPORTER: David Brill
This is the Kabul we know from news reports. But just an hour's drive north, there's another world here altogether. Sheltered behind a maze of blast walls and sprawling over 5,000 acres, Bagram airbase is a massive staging post. It's the way into and out of Afghanistan for most of the coalition soldiers sent to fight the Taliban.
RADIO PRESENTER: Hey, things are looking good here in Bagram. The snow is melting, it's about 32 degrees right now, it's going to get to about 44 in the afternoon.
There are 20,000 soldiers housed here right now, and they're doing everything they can to replicate the comforts of home.
RADIO PRESENTER: Getting back into the music, on Freedom Radio.
It's hard to imagine that we're in the middle of a war zone here. This is the Main Street shopping mall, offering pretty much any service or product that the soldiers can buy back home.
LIEUTENANT KOCZERA: This is just, they call it the beauty spa, but really - it's just a pretty big place to get your hair cut.
Lieutenant Koczera and his platoon recently arrived here after months of Spartan living at a combat outpost. He agrees to show me around, starting at one of his favourite attractions.
LIEUTENANT KOCZERA: I mean, these places are from way out that don't have anything close to this, they come here and it's pretty - it blows you away.
REPORTER: Do they get their fingernails done as well?
LIEUTENANT KOCZERA: They can if they want to. They'll actually shampoo your hair, which is pretty decadent if you've gone eight months without a proper shower and you've got someone giving you a shampoo. You get an actual proper haircut, they're pretty fast, and they'll also do massages here too.
WOMAN: Is anybody waiting for a massage?
SOLDIER: When's the next available?
Back on Main Street I find advertisements for luxury cars and motorbikes.
REPORTER: You're not going to buy yourself a Dodge to take back?
LIEUTENANT KOCZERA: No, I'm good. A car would be a bit of an extreme for me, but a lot of guys choose. You buy it when you get here and spend the year, you pay it off, and when you get home you've got a brand new car that is paid off.
REPORTER: Or a Harley Davidson?
LIEUTENANT KOCZERA: Yeah, that's pretty awesome.
Lieutenant Koczera takes me to one of Bagram's many souvenir shops. He is keen to pick up a memento for his trip back home.
LIEUTENANT KOCZERA: You see a lot of guys come in here, they'll get something for their loved ones. But I mean, all kinds of sets...
REPORTER: So you're all here on the military base?
LIEUTENANT KOCZERA: Oh yeah, I mean you can't really go off base, honestly. If you're on mission, you're on mission. Going off the base is not the time to really shop, most of the time. It's very rare occasions that you get that - that you're at a bazaar and that you're safe enough to shop. Here, I'm completely relaxed. You've got your weapon, you have to, but I'm not afraid that we are going to be attacked or anything. For just the necklace and the earrings, how much?
SHOPKEEPER: Just the necklace and earrings?
LIEUTENANT KOCZERA: Yep, just this. Together it is a little much.
SHOPKEEPER: $100.
LIEUTENANT KOCZERA: $100? Can I get the necklace and this for $120?
SHOPKEEPER: The lapis one?
LIEUTENANT KOCZERA: Yeah, the lapis for $20 and this and that for $100?
SHOPKEEPER: $120.
LIEUTENANT KOCZERA: $120 for everything? Yeah?
SHOPKEEPER: Uh-huh.
Nearby is a 24-hour food hall offering everything from burgers to homestyle fried chicken.
LIEUTENANT KOCZERA: This place is packed out during lunch and you can't get a seat and the line usually doubles around. People want the food here.
REPORTER: Why is that? Why aren't they eating in the mess hall?
LIEUTENANT KOCZERA: It's the freedom to choose what you want to eat - it's different - and you're choosing some food that is from back home. For a lot of people, to them, this is kind of getting a slice of home.
But things may soon be changing here. With more American troops on the way to Bagram, space is getting tight. The commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has ordered some of the more indulgent services to close, to make room for more troops. The auto and Harley Davidson dealer is one of Bagram's most popular shopping spots.
REPORTER: People do come over and buy a Harley Davison from you?
SALESMAN: Yeah, personally, I do about 200 orders per year, myself.
REPORTER: And you've got three or four other people here. SALESMAN: Yeah, it is a great service that we offer the troops. It is a shame that they have run out of space and apparently they need our place right here for the new troops coming in.
The salesman tells me that under McChrystal's order they have been given 60 days to leave the country.
SALESMAN: It's more important to make sure the whole war effort here is the priority and then we can maybe fit in around it at some stage.
They're not alone though. Others have also been judged unnecessary to the US war effort.
REPORTER: They're thinking of closing Burger King down and the other stores here. There was a message put out by McChrystal that they thought it wasn't too healthy for the soldiers to be eating too many Burger Kings.
SOLDIER 1: It's not.
REPORTER: It's home away from home though, isn't it?
SOLDIER 1: Nope, it's a good thing.
REPORTER: Why is it a good thing?
SOLDIER 2: Save money, don't get fat.
The removal reflects McChrystal's austere approach to the conduct of the war. With the latest military push, he wants his soldiers focused on the main game now more than ever. Many of the 4,000 civilians from Russia, India, and Pakistan who work on the base as cleaners, coffee makers, and even pizza delivery boys, now face an uncertain future.
REPORTER: That's a real Cuban cigar?
SHOPKEEPER: Yeah.
REPORTER: How much are they?
SHOPKEEPER: This are $16 and these only $15.
REPORTER: $15 each, are they, from Cuba? Do you know if they are closing this shop down or are you staying open?
SHOPKEEPER: I have heard that this will be closed within 90 days.
REPORTER: How does that worry you?
SHOPKEEPER: It will probably be difficult for us, you know. We are here for the shop. We may be jobless.
There is one exception to General McChrystal's purge, though.
SHOPKEEPER: They say if you are not Afghan, you are going to be closed because the people who have got a shop here like Pakistanis, Indian, they are not going to pay for government, nothing. 20 people work for me and I support them all.
REPORTER: So the money goes back into Afghanistan?
SHOPKEEPER: Yes.
REPORTER: It doesn't go back to India?
SHOPKEEPER: Nope. No, because I'm Afghan, they go back to Afghan, Afghan Government.
LIEUTENANT KOCZERA: Gee, I like these.
REPORTER: Are they military boots?
LIEUTENANT KOCZERA: Yeah, our guys can wear these.
While Lieutenant Kozcera says the fast food, massages and manicures are a bonus, he admits that he and his men are in Afghanistan to fight and not to shop.
LIEUTENANT KOCZERA: You come here and you're in an Oakley shop in the middle of Aghanistan. There are times when it blows your mind, like when you are eating a pizza - in the middle of Aghanistan for pizza! It is nice.
Reporter/Camera
DAVID BRILL
Producer
VICTORIA STROBL
Researcher
MELANIE MORRISON
Editor
WAYNE LOVE
DAVID POTTS
Original Music composed by
VICKI HANSEN