Sobering report from the ground about the challenges of training Afghan recruits to effectively fight the Taliban. The author provides her own eyewitness perspective, along with a thoughtful analysis of U.S. prospects for winning the war. But she also adds her own opinion in no uncertain terms, with few independent viewpoints to offset it. So this is as much an opinion piece as it is a news report, making it less factual on the whole, though I like her voice and personality.

A well written, well crafted story. But because it is in "The Nation," it probably won't hold sway witn anyone to the right of Barney Frank. Some of the best reporting these days shows up in "Rolling Stone," or "Harpers," or "The Nation." Like "Ramparts" of years past these magazines cover the news as if it were the complex and unruly beast that it is. A good Journalist like Ann Jones knows when to let the beast off the leash and simply, and vividly, tell us where it goes. If only the people who need to read this would.

Must reading for those wondering whether the US is flushing billions of dollars down the lavatory, in its Afghan adventure.

This is more than opinion, it is insight; something sadly lacking in America's government and media. How could the naive idea of "training" the Afghan army and police to western standards be anything other than an illusion turned into policy prescription. And have you ever asked yourself why the Taliban and insurgents never seem to require "training"?