AFGHANISTAN IS A MESS. We know that because everybody says so. Al Gore says so. But something more complicated is going on, as a fine report by Pamela Constable in the Washington Post earlier this week makes clear. The headline reinforces the conventional wisdom: “A Year After Taliban, Daily Life in Kabul Is Struggle for Most.” People will scan the headline, have the prejudice reinforced, and move on.
But the story is subtler than the editors allow. It starts with a description of a bullet-pocked house without windows or floors in which three poor families are trying to survive, having returned after a decade in refugee camps in Pakistan. But the next house is a hive of activity. Bricks are being laid. A new and expensive roof is being installed. The owner of that house has also just returned from Pakistan and has a job working for the United Nations.
