Beyond the Call of Duty

President Obama insists there are no American combat troops in Iraq and Syria, and that there are no plans to deploy any. But we meet an American ex-military man who’s gone to fight with the Kurds against Islamic State.

Also, the Royal Air Force’s first openly transgender officer has a message for the Pentagon regarding the US military’s ban on transgender people serving. And, a former American soldier shares her experience of transitioning from male to female during a deployment to Afghanistan. Plus, a visual journalist uses a pencil - not a lens - to capture images of war in Afghanistan. A photographer documents the surreal landscape of the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay. And a Sikh-American combats stigma and prejudice by making people laugh.

(Photo: Former US soldier Jordan Matson, who joined a Kurdish militia group fighting IS in northern Syria. Courtesy of Jordan Matson)