Word: herat
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Some locals jokingly call Herat the "Dubai of Afghanistan." The nickname is a stretch, but the mini-boom taking place in this commercial capital is borne out by 24-hour electricity and pothole-free streets where people wander without fear of the random violence that afflicts other urban centers in the country. Who gets the credit? Much of it goes to Iran, which lies less than a hundred miles to the west and is moving closer...
This scenario is frustratingly familiar for many Afghans. Last August in Herat province, which borders Farah to the north, Afghan and U.N. officials found evidence that up to 90 civilian had perished in a U.S. operation. The military initially disputed the findings, saying no civilians had died, only Taliban. But after a high-level investigation, widespread protests and heavy pressure from President Karzai, the military revised the civilian death toll to 33. In the aftermath, McKiernan issued a directive that commanders in the field err on the side of caution when fighting near populated areas, opting for disengagement rather than...
...reached by plane - or not at all - tomorrow. And so follow the boundaries of the nation's tiny tourism industry. The few foreign tourists who come to Afghanistan, estimated to number under a thousand yearly, need plenty of help to pull off their holidays safely. In cities like Kabul, Herat, Faizabad and Mazar-i-Sharif, a small legion of Afghans who spent the last seven years as translators and security aides are spinning their expertise at navigating this shifting landscape into a new business. Now, they are also tour guides...
...terrorism and insurgency are only part of what's going wrong in Afghanistan. In 2002, I walked safely along the length of the road between Herat and Obey in western Afghanistan. Recently aid workers were carjacked on that road, and it is now considered too dangerous for aid agencies, effectively closing the main access to the central regions of the country. In provinces close to Kabul, such as Wardak, Ghazni and Logar, which were easy to visit two years ago, foreigners are regularly attacked and girls' schools burned at will. Afghanistan produces 92% of the world's opium (used...
What We've Done Right When I walked across Afghanistan, shortly after the U.S.-led invasion had toppled the Taliban regime, there was no electricity in the 400 miles (640 km) between Herat and Kabul. The villages along the route were led by tribal chiefs, mullahs or guerrilla commanders who had little to do with their neighbors, let alone with the central government. Most districts that I visited had no schools or clinics. As a civil servant - I was on leave from my job in Britain's Foreign Office - I was surprised by how poor Afghanistan was and how ungoverned...