Americans have eliminated Iran's worst enemies, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam [Hussein]. I occasionally threatened my Iranian counterpart in Kabul that one day I would send him a big bill for what we did. But, seriously, Iran is pursuing a dual strategy in Iraq. On the one hand, the Iranians, after decades of hostility, are now interested in good relations. On the other hand, they want to keep the country weak and dominate the region.
I would be quite happy to see the Northern Alliance steam across northern Afghanistan and take Kabul.
If I could go to Kabul and not die, I would go back to Afghanistan as soon as I could. And, that was the most interesting place that I've been to.
When you walk down the street of Kabul your values for life changes, they do change.
All politics are local, whether in Kabul or in Canada.
The problem is that so many of them are not getting told. This is a massive problem, not just in the Middle East but for places from Africa to Afghanistan. There are millions of stories out there, millions of potential Booksellers of Kabul or Valentino Achak Dengs.
I wouldn't want to roll the dice on Kabul by myself, because I really think getting killed is definitely a possibility there. A very good possibility.
While women may look different, as some wear suits and others wear saris, or some cover their hair while others wear their hair loose, women need to stand together because they all face the central point of discrimination, although the extremity of which may be different from Kigali to Kabul.
I was out there for 12 days. There are more beggars in Soho than there are in Kabul.
The [George W. ] Bush administration tripled its aid package to Afghanistan. [Hamid] Karzai finally (and courageously) announced that warlords will be forbidden from holding office in the future government. And finally, NATO agreed to expand the peacekeeping forces to troubled areas outside of Kabul.
Success will only happen with Afghans leading the charge, and it is far, far more important for Kabul to create and support a purpose-driven school of architecture than to invite a high profile designer to build.
I'd rather we were rebuilding Philadelphia, as opposed to Kabul. . . There are American cities with serious infrastructure problems and we're not addressing them.
The strategy for peace-building in Afghanistan is economic aid, reconstruction, international security forces. On those lines, the U. S. has been extremely slow. And it has even blocked expanding security forces from Kabul to other cities.
