Convoys, Not Car Bombs ; Military Supply Route Is Key to Building Stable Regional Trade

Summary

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On Feb. 26, I woke up to the sound of a suicide car bomb explosion two blocks away. I ate my full English breakfast amid cacophonous gunfire from the neighborhood park. The Taliban took responsibility for my wake-up call. It is these sorts of events that prompt analysts here to argue that despite impressive progress against insurgents in Marjah, Afghanistan is "going to hell in a handbasket."

But, as I ventured out on to the streets later that day, I couldn't help noticing the extraordinary resilience of ordinary Kabulis. The bazaar was bustling, men and women flocked to mosque and traffic was as thick as ever. Colorful convoys of supply trucks plowed through the maelstrom. Business as usual.

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Convoys, Not Car Bombs ; Military Supply Route Is Key to Building Stable Regional Trade

Afghanistan's fate depends a lot less on isolated suicide attacks, and more on those convoys, and the geopolitics surrounding them. It used to be that almost all nonlethal supplies for U.S., NATO...

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