Friends,

Did I just hear George Bush say that "the Taliban are history" ?

Is that why I was stuck inside my office all yesterday afternoon while NATO troops defused a car bomb a couple of blocks away?

Is that why my guesthouse is missing windows from the car bomb explosion Sunday that killed three Americans, as well as several Afghans and Nepalese?

Is that why eight children are dead from another car bomb last Saturday in a town to the south of here?

Mission accomplished?

- Jim (electronic mail, September 3, 2004)

Editor's note: In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on September 2, President Bush said "Because we acted to defend our country, the murderous regimes of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban are history, more than 50 million people have been liberated, and democracy is coming to the broader Middle East. . . ."