The Karzai Dilemma - JAMES TRAUB, Foreign Policy

Last week I met an official who had arrived recently at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, but who was adamant -- almost vehement -- about America's prospects for success in Afghanistan.

We would win, and we could not afford to lose. But Afghanistan is not Vietnam 1968, or Iraq 2006, where any intellectually honest person had to recognize the fiasco in progress. - Manas Hysteria

Afghanistan's Multiple Personalities
The Crossing: A Journey Through North Afghanistan