The War Diaries

From Left: Young Chinese guy, Yunus Qanooni, Ahmad Shah Massoud, Dr. Abdullah, and older Chinese guy

New York- I saw on the news yesterday that former Texas congressman of Hollywood legend, Charlie Wilson, died. In a way, I suppose his passing kind of represents the end of an opaque era. For some reason, the story, and that of the newly released 9/11 aerial photos made me realize that that era in Afghanistan history is really just that now; history. These stories jogged my memory of a foggy party night in Kabul last fall where I wound up in an underground karaoke bar called the Golden Key in Wazir Akbar Khan with some temporary journalist friends and a bevy of obnoxious NGO expat types. The bathroom was upstairs and on one trip I saw a kind of strange photo on the wall of this Chinese father and son who I think owned the restaurant bar establishment. From the looks of the photo, which they have proudly displayed, they were either doing business with Massoud or his cohorts or perhaps they had an establishment in the Panjshir Valley in 2001 (I didn’t see a Chinese bar in Khwaja Bauhuddin, that’s for sure)? What the photo basically says to me is these guys are OG and therefore untouchable in the Karzai government’s crackdown on places dispensing booze to debauched foreigners. Earlier that same evening, we were at Peter Jouvenal’s place and the waiters had shut the bar because there were rumors of a possible raid after another place was liberated of all its spirits a few days before in Wazir Akbar Khan. I was even further surprised to learn this sketchy place has a website upon googling it today: Golden Key Seafood Restaurant. I would love to know what the story behind this picture is. If anyone knows, please email me.

Zekria Barakzai Deputy Chief Electoral Officer left Azizullah Ludin right chief of Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission.

Kabul, Afghanistan- Well you all heard what happened yesterday, the great Karzai has been ratified another 5-year mandate to run Afghanistan into the ground even further. To paraphrase former CIA dog of war Milt Beardon, “What are we gonna bomb there? Just blow up bigger rocks into smaller rocks?” Afghanistan is already in a perpetual state of shambles. Karzai has pissed away the goodwill that followed the Bonn process and 2002 seems like eons ago. The man who once seemed like a reasonable intellectual hope for this country now seems insular and childlike pacing about in his palace ensconced in Kabul’s Green Zone like a caged elephant. I have a piece about Azizullah Ludin and the feckless Zekria Barakzai’s antics at the IEC yesterday in today’s Asia TImes. Meanwhile Kabul is gripped by a bogus swine flu scare and almost every Kalashnikov-toting security guard and traffic cop are donning cheap, green surgical masks due to an epidemic that has yet to materialize here. There is a real epidemic of suicide terror attacks and many laborers, who can’t spare a few Afghanis to but masks from street orphans wading through traffic, are being tasks to install new speed bumps all over town. Dear Kabulis: If massive blast walls installed in front of the Indian Embassy after it was attacked last year didn’t deter the recent suicide bombing there, what on god’s earth makes you think a succession of speed bumps is going to stop a determined bomber driving a lorry full of TNT?