Brief Notes

I am due to visit Herat in the northwest, the most Persian of Afghanistan's cities, sometime next week, with luck.  Two other trips I thought I might take this week, one to the north and one to Marjah, the site of recent Marine battles, are unlikely, as is the trip to the coolly-named Nimruz province.  Nuristan is also looking dubious for a visit anytime soon, which is sad, since Nuristan, I read, "the province of light," was not long ago called "Kafiristan," the province of unbelievers.  The "light" refers to the forcible conversion to Islam a century or so ago.  Another time, perhaps. 

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina just visited Kabul.  Senator Graham is apparently a colonel in the South Carolina Air Reserve.  And he wears his fatigues when he visits.  Yep, sat right through an hour-plus long meeting in his uniform.  I don't think I've ever seen a member of Congress do that before.  I am also due to visit a Kabul shopping center in the next few days.  Jody knows the rule - only one mall visit per calendar year.  So this will be it until 2011, though I think the Dubai mall should have counted against the quota.

Also, I learn that schedules and meeting agendas referring to "P4" mean Petraeus, the four-star general.  Everything is reduced to an acronym here, at least everything referring to the US military.  If we could actually wage the counter-insurgency as well as we write about waging the counter-insurgency, we would long ago have won.