. . . Few westerners familiar with the doom and gloom features in America’s most prominent newspapers, from those of the astute Pamela Constable of the Washington Post, to the recent op-ed pages of the New York Times, would want to test the outer reaches of the city at late at night, especially in a vehicle as ridiculously conspicuous as our open-aired Camaro convertible—the only one in Kabul.

From news reports one might prudently assume that Afghanistan has steered even further down the road towards anarchy in the past year. Yet it would have been impossible last summer to attempt to drive even inside Kabul in the evenings, much less travel so openly outside the city at night, so in some ways things have improved immeasurably over the last twelve months. More remarkably, in our many hours on the road we were never impeded by anything more than the now omnipresent traffic jams. As we moved further from central Kabul, however, weapons were always at the ready and the driver was careful never to retrace his route. . . .

Last summer renegade police at the ubiquitous Kabul traffic circles might stop and board my cab uninvited, gleefully tease an automatic weapon and just as suddenly disembark a without explanation a few miles down the road. It was doubtful that many were legitimate police with any official status, nevertheless the judicious travelers never asked for credentials or complained when their vehicles were searched and belongings confiscated. This summer is completely different. Petty harassment has ended. Civil order has been restored to a remarkable degree on the highways by a professional police force that efficiently—if not always quietly-- patrols the highways in slick new trucks donated by the German government and trained in the latest law enforcement techniques by the American military. Great credit for this transformation must also be shared with the new Interior Minister, Jalali, who’s been able to bring more of an ethnically balanced and representative police presence into the agency. Kabul law enforcement now moves heavily armed but astonishingly restrained crews along the teeming streets, in a manner as unobtrusive as the ISAF patrols of last year. Consequently, one sees far fewer of the once omnipresent international peacekeepers on the highways. A benefit of this increased security is that the onerous curfews have been eliminated. Drivers are free again to assault and insult each other with impunity all hours of the night while the newly-motorized Afghan police force looks on with a bemused and benign detachment—just like ISAF in days past.
. . .
Still, Kabul is hardly yet a tranquil vacation resort. . . . Firefights and skirmishes are not uncommon, but are now very vocally blamed by Afghans on ‘outsiders’ like the Iran-based renegade Hekmatyar, Al Qa’eda, Pakistan’s ISI or ‘insiders’ like Defense Minister Fahim. Just last week, Fahim’s thugs provoked a firefight in front of the American Embassy (pulling pins and rolling grenades to the front entrance) but were quickly eliminated by American snipers protecting the perimeter. The fact that the Kabulis publicly applauded this action is invigorating proof of the transformation of the culture into a meaningful civil society. . . . Bombings and attacks are considered as personal affronts to the notable progress achieved through the hard work of the citizens themselves—with little help from NGOs. Terrorism is viewed as a mark of the increasing frustration and desperation of the reactionaries still operating here. They’ve lost their main chance; now all the Islamofascists can do is to try to temporarily disrupt an increasingly civil society strongly committed to stability and peace.

. . . Those who disparaged the American efforts in Afghanistan have seriously underestimated the constructive changes wrought in this city in such a brief period. Despite dozens of missteps, made mostly with good intentions, it has been the understated but forceful American influence, not the UN and the hundreds of NGOs, that has taken the major gambles here. The Americans have displayed admirable flexibility in altering tactics and strategy when necessary and achieved this dicey, delicate transition.