From Afghanistan
Things are not all bad in the 'stan. Wretchard at Belmont Club points out a heartwarming story-
...a Washington Post article by Peter Baker, who has been covering Afghanistan since the US ousted the Taliban. Sometime back he met a Hakim Taniwal, an Afghan who had formerly been a sociology professor in Australia, seemingly bent on a suicide mission. Taniwal had a commission in his pocket from President Karzai appointing him governor of a province. Unfortunately the governor's mansion was occupied by a warlord whose retainers were armed to the teeth. Taniwal was nevertheless determined to take possession and Baker never expected to see him alive again. "Dead man walking". It didn't quite turn out that way.
When I saw him again here two weeks ago, he was sitting in the provincial governor's office and the warlord was somewhere in the countryside, out of power, his militia largely disbanded. I reminded Taniwal of our first meeting, when he could not even get into the governor's house because it was occupied by the warlord's family and dozens of his thuggish guerrillas, bristling with Kalashnikovs and grenade launchers. Taniwal looked at me and smiled. "Things have changed," he said with satisfaction.
Anytime you see stories like this it should give you hope. Go here and read it all and you'll find it's not all death and destruction in central Asia...
Perhaps one day historians will discover that the phrase 'War on Terror' was a misnomer after all; that in retrospect September 11 was not an insurrectionary act, as the Left often pretends it is, but the last attempt of a fading aristocracy to preserve its prerogatives. Then Ground Zero will look to Statue of Liberty with a matching message of its own.
Arise you tired,
you poor,
you huddled masses
and breathe free.