Afghan Experiment Marked by Progress And Disillusionment
When Mahmad Naib ventured back to his village, north of Kabul, after U.S. warplanes and Afghan fighters drove out the Taliban militia in November 2001, he found little but scorched earth. The grapevines were dead, the houses looted, the mosque in ruins and the magnificent sycamores burned black. Today, the resettled mud-and-timber village is surrounded by ripening grapes and obscured by a thicket of new restaurants, workshops and gas stations lining the nearby Shomali highway. The roar of fast traffic drowns out the ping of hammers as workers erect a shiny tin dome on the half-restored village mosque. Full Story