What It Feels Like In Kabul, Ramadi -- Peter Carlson

Kabul is crawling with all varieties of foreign aid workers, Garcia writes, but they don't seem to aid many Afghans. "Daily, Afghans thread their way through a traffic jam of abbreviations emblazoned across Land Rovers: UN, UNESCO, UNDP, ACF, MACA. No reliable figures exist on the overhead of the 350 Kabul-based aid agencies, but indirect signs -- air-conditioned Land Rovers, Nissan Pathfinders, Toyota Land Cruisers, and luxurious residences -- suggest a high figure. . . . Despite these few showy trappings of prosperity, most of Afghanistan still lies in ruins."