Saeeq Shajjan was staring down the barrel of an AK-47. At the other end was a Taliban militant trying to threaten Shajjan away from the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, the only way out of Afghanistan for Shajjan’s family. His three children sat feet away in another car. “No, you cannot shoot me,” Shajjan boldly told the man, grinning. Why not? “Because you’re scared of Allah,” Shajjan, a 43-year-old lawyer, responded. “Allah would punish you for this if you shoot me.” He was met with silence. Shajjan and his family turned back and parked the vehicles elsewhere. Shajjan, alone this time, returned to his Taliban interlocutors. Making use of his courtroom acumen, Shajjan explained that he wasn’t joining “the infidels,” as the Taliban men called the fleeing Americans. He was, instead, going with the...