Afghanistan Today

If you can bear to learn anything about foreign affairs today, read Christina Lamb's Times Online article on the situation in Afghanistan. Not only is it full of incredible local color - an Afghani named "Engineer," the fact that the U.S. ran 750 bombing raids in May, the fate of Britain's army in 1842, the inefficacy of the coalition's "International Shopping Assistance Force" - it is superbly written and structured. Considerably more enjoyable than a land war in Asia.