Reporting from Afghanistan
August 1, 2008
I've just arrived on the ground in Kabul, Afghanistan, and for the next three weeks, will be reporting on the war here.
I'll be embedding with the Marines this time, trying to get a sense of the progress they're making in doing for Afghanistan what these same warriors did in three tours (at least) in Anbar province in Iraq.
At breakfast this morning at my hotel in Kabul, I ran into an Afghan-American named Ali who is here working on the cell phone network. He was cautiously hopeful about the situation, though he made it clear that we'll never be able to cut off the head of the dragon that's tormenting this country while we contain the fight to Afghanistan, since so much of the mayhem that takes place here is planned and executed from the federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan.
The people I've met as I walked the streets of Kabul have been overwhelmingly hospitable, almost to a fault. It's clear, however, that this country's people are hurting. Beggars, mostly women and children, swarm the streets even early in the morning. It's heart-wrenching to see these burqua-clad ladies begging for food for their infants.
That said, Afghanistan is not a failed state, as posited by the author of an article in this month's Time magazine.
More to come.
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