Free Republic

One of the reasons for the success we've enjoyed in Afghanistan is that our viceroy — pardon me, ambassador — there, who saw the country through the founding of a democratic government, was not just a serious thinker and a skilled diplomat but also spoke the language and understood the culture. Why? Because Zalmay Khalilzad is an Afghan-born Afghan American.

Ramin Ahmed is a 21-year-old Afghan-American who sells mortgages in California. But for the past six days he has played the part of a warlord as he helps prepare 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers for a yearlong deployment to Afghanistan. More than 3,000 paratroopers from the 82nd's 1st Brigade Combat Team will deploy to Afghanistan in the spring. The soldiers are in the midst of a nine-day exercise that is the largest and most intense training held on post since Sept. 11, 2001. Soldiers have converted Fort Bragg's training areas into a simulation of Afghanistan called ''Braggistan." More than 100 role-players...

Zohal Faqeeri has more reason than ever to be thankful this Thanksgiving Day. The 10-year-old girl from Kabul, Afghanistan, is thankful not only to be living with her family in the United States, but also because she won a contest with her essay on what she is thankful for. snip--- cause the author writes for AP ---- snip ----

A movie theater next to an Afghan restaurant in the Little Kabul area of Fremont, Calif., displays a sign thanking President Bush for the elections in Afghanistan.