HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan (AFP) -- Ahmed says he is a bridge between his Afghan homeland and the U.S., where he lived for years before returning with one of the few jobs he could find -- interpreter for the U.S. military.

“The job market in America is not good with the recession,” said the 42-year-old who fled Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion in 1979.
“I will use the money I earn for my children's education,” he told AFP.
“I took this job to earn money and because I want to contribute somehow to the peace and stability of my country,” he said.
Ahmed, one of millions of Afghans who fled their country during the war against the former Soviet Union, lives in Buffalo, New York with his wife and four children.
Now back in Afghanistan for the first time in almost three decades, he says he is saddened by what he sees -- violence and death in an ongoing insurgency by Taliban Islamists.
“I have mixed emotions,” Ahmed said of his first visit home since he was 16 years old.
“I am happy to have returned to my country after nearly 30 years, but very sad to see it in a horrible situation like this.”
He returned three weeks ago wearing U.S. military fatigues, on a six-month contract to work as a Pashtun translator for the U.S. marines.
For security reasons he does not use his real name, and is known to the U.S. soldiers he works with simply as “Terp,” shorthand for interpreter.
Ahmed is attached to a unit of the Second Marine Expeditionary Brigade, which was sent to Afghanistan as part of President Barack Obama's push to improve security in the country.
Coalition troops are still fighting the Taliban hardliners ousted from power in 2001 for sheltering the Al-Qaeda leaders behind the September 11 attacks -- and fresh resources have been poured in to regain the upper hand.
With 90,000 troops now in action, commanders of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) intend to beat back the Taliban insurgency, which has become increasingly potent and deadly.
The additional military capability is being focused on the south of Afghanistan, particularly in Helmand province where the Taliban are strongest.
Ahmed is here with some of the 21,000 U.S. soldiers being deployed to bolster the existing NATO force, most arriving ahead of presidential elections slated for August 20.
One of the major challenges in this part of the country -- baking hot, featureless desert near the country's border with Pakistan -- will be to ensure the vote goes ahead with as little Taliban disruption as possible.
Ahmed said his wife worries about his safety “because she doesn't like me being in a dangerous environment.
“We talked as a family a lot before I came, and I told them it was something I wanted to do,” he said, as his unit made a brief stop at Camp Dwyer, a makeshift base in the Helmand desert.
“I know both American culture and Afghan culture, so I can bridge the gap,” he said.
His first night back was spent not far from his childhood home, at the U.S.'s huge military base at Bagram airport, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the capital, Kabul.
“It was only 15 miles from where I grew up, and my sister still lives nearby,” he said.
“I have not seen her since 1982, but I could not go to visit her as I am under U.S. security restrictions.” he said, adding that his relatives don't quite understand why he cannot see them.
“Her son -- my nephew -- was even getting married when I was at Bagram. I understand why I can't see my Afghan family while I am here, but it bothers them a lot.”
Some Afghans, he knows, will disapprove of him working with the U.S. military, but Ahmed said he believes he is helping his country's reconstruction after 30 years of war that has left the land and the people exhausted and impoverished.
And while he is happy to return -- and to see a part of the country unlike the lush lands of his childhood near Kabul -- his teenage memories are of the fear and chaos of the brutal war against the Soviet army.
“Life then was very tough, and we had no choice but to leave,” he said.
“The family members who stayed have had difficult times, moving from place to place to be safe from mujahedeen fighting and warlords,” he said, referring to the civil war that erupted after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.
“It is a great feeling to return and help,” he said.
“Now I want to come here again as an ordinary person to see my sister, the farmland I still own and the old villages I knew.”
“But my four children all feel very American, so I don't think we could ever move back to Afghanistan even if things improve a lot.”