Picture of the Week

Baghdad, August, 2007. Reuters/Damir Sagolj

America Dances With Its Own Devils in Afghanistan

Underlying many of the decisions, officials say, was a misapprehension about what Americans would find on the ground in Afghanistan. “The perception was that Afghans hated foreigners and that the Iraqis would welcome us,” said James Dobbins, the administration’s former special envoy for Afghanistan. “The reverse turned out to be the case.”

David Sanger and David Rohde, in a long and breathtakingly sad piece written for the NYT, "How a 'Good War' Went Bad". (See also, "The Punishment of Virtue" on RHS sidebar).