Following the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, President George Bush and the Western nations decided to invade Afghanistan to capture Osama bin Laden, destroy the AL-Qaeda organization that had bases in the country with the blessing of the Taliban, and overthrow the latter.

Alexandra lived through the first fweeks of the war in Pakistan where she witnessed the rising anger of the Pakistanis against the United States and a possible invasion of Afghanistan. Then she followed the allied troops, helped by the Northern Alliance, to Kunduz and Kandahar.