Afghanistan After 11 Years Of War

U.S. Marines take cover while providing security during a firefight at the stability platform in the village of Shurakay in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, Feb. 16, 2013. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Alejandro Pena

Afghanistan Following 11 Years Of US Combat: 'Not Much Different' -- NBC

KABUL, Afghanistan — I wondered, approaching Kabul over the snow-shrouded Hindu Kush mountains, what the story of the moment would be in the teeming city below.

It had been six years since I’d last visited Afghanistan’s capital, a short visit then that included an interview with President Hamid Karzai as part of the last of six long reporting assignments since 9/11— that one stretching from Paktika and Gardez in the southeast to Herat in the west.

More than 11 years had passed since my first Afghan assignment, over the Kyber Pass from Pakistan and then into Jalalabad days after the Taliban had fled; the arc of America’s longest war.
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"Not much different," offered my seatmate, a senior NATO official from one of the 40 countries remaining in the coalition that has alternately steered or suffered through Afghanistan’s bloody march toward stand-alone status as a reconstituted nation.

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My Comment: It takes generations (and more) to change a country's culture. The situation will gradually change in Afghanistan .... but probably in the next century .... maybe.