Free Republic

KABUL, Afghanistan - Should you ever find yourself surrounded by AK-47-toting men in a Tajik Afghan village, try this: "Lotfan ban payen salah khotra. Agahi qar mishom." Roughly translated from Dari, it means, "Please put down your rifles. They are making me nervous." Say it with a smile, and you are guaranteed to get a big laugh from the men in the village. They never put down their rifles, mind you, but they laugh. It's a start. In a perverse way, Osama bin Laden's escape from Afghanistan in 2001 might be the best thing to happen to this nation in...