Afghanistan, update

Oxblog's roving Afghan reporter is back. He gives a thorough treatment on the situation there, and has opimism about the future and how it's going.

Meanwhile, the prospect of permanent US bases in the country is greeted with tremendous relief by most Afghans I talk to, whose primary fear at the moment is that America "will abandon us again as they did in the 1990s." And the international military presence throughout the country is becoming ever more international, as US Provincial Reconstruction Teams retire and are replaced by Canadians, Italians, Brits. The securing and rebuilding of Afghanistan is not the simple act of American empire perceived by many critics.

He also talks about the drug economy, which right now is a concern, but not a crisis. And President Karzai is seen as a growing national power, and not just the "Mayor of Kabul."
Read the whole thing.