"The City Of Kandahar Has Dramically Changed In ..." Topic

…The Past 2 Decades.

" What a difference two decades make.

When I last visited this southern Afghan city – the cradle of the Taliban insurgency – I flew in on a plane chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The airstrip was tiny, as was the airport. The city was a backwater, with no more than a few hundred thousand people, if that. It was the summer of 1996, and brutally hot.

And oh yes, the Taliban controlled the city – and much of Afghanistan.

When I landed again in Kandahar earlier this month, I flew in on a commercial airline that touched down on a large airstrip rivaling any in the West. The airport, with its curved arches and manicured gardens, had become an international one. As they walked out of the airport, visitors were greeted by ostriches in an enclosure – yes, you read that correctly – that had been donated by a wealthy businessman. The city had greatly expanded, its population up nearly ten-fold…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Let us all hope it stays that way … And all the blood & treasure that the Western world had spent was not wasted. But again … we'll have to see what happens when all of NATO is gone.

that this kind of thing doesn't get reported much annoys the hell out of me.

Everyone seems to think Afghanistan is the same as we found it and our efforts were wasted.

So long as the Taliban can be kept at bay, far from it.

But why don't we let the tax-payers know?

stu … have you ever seen the movie, "Charlie Wilson's War" with Tom Hanks ? link Eventhough it's not 100% accurate, it's close enough. And gives you a good idea of what goes on behind the "political" curtain …

Yes, good news are few.
Sad.

Amicalement
Armand

You can even find the Kandahar Base S*** Pond on google earth.

Thanks, troopwo, I had almost gotten that smell out of my memory…