The Telegraph has an article on how impressed Kabul inhabitants are with the precision of the US bombing.

So accurate were the hits on the Antonov transport planes that only the aircrafts’ tails, wings and some of the cockpits were left. Their fuselages had disappeared. The official supervising the runway repair, Farid Ahmad, was impressed by the Americans’ work. He said it certainly outclassed the efforts of the warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who destroyed much of the city and the airport 10 years ago.

“I have been through the Russians,” he said. “I have seen Hekmatyar in action and the Northern Alliance. This is just incredible. The Americans appear to have been 98 per cent accurate.

“Hekmatyar tried for six years to destroy the TV signal on Television Mountain. The Americans managed it straight away.”

It’s a little surreal reading some of the descriptions by people as though they’re scoring a game, but to the degree that judges of such things exist, given what they’ve been through in the past quarter century between the Soviets and the various civil wars, the residents of Kabul and Afghanistan at large have to be the best-qualified people on the planet to issue points.

Much has been made of the asymmetry of the war, but until now, no one except Dr. Krauthammer has explicitly pointed out the diplomatic asymmetry. Why indeed should we have to continue to demonstrate our religious tolerance, in light of the continually-demonstrated religious intolerance in the Middle East?

Imagine if 19 murderous Christian fundamentalists hijacked four airplanes over Saudi Arabia and, in the name of God, crashed them into the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, destroying the holy Kaaba and killing thousands of innocent Muslim pilgrims. Could anyone doubt that the entire Christian world — clergy and theologians, leaders and lay folk — would rise as one to denounce the act? Yankee Stadium could not hold the trainloads of priests and preachers, reverends and rectors — why, even rabbis would demand entry — that would descend upon a mass service of atonement, shame, ostracism and excommunication. The pope himself would rend his garments at this blasphemous betrayal of Christ.

And yet after Sept. 11, where were the Muslim theologians and clergy, the imams and mullahs, rising around the world to declare that Sept. 11 was a crime against Islam? Where were the fatwas against Osama bin Laden? The voices of high religious authority have been scandalously still.

Reuters reports that the US State Department has issued a warning today to travelers that “it was not a good idea to travel to Afghanistan right now because of war, banditry, political instability and an acute food shortage…”

Dang, they just blew my vacation plans right out the window. And I had such good fares, too…

A man whose hunting rifle discharged at a DFW ticket counter was allowed to board a later flight. Note that “airport operations were not interrupted.” Compare and contrast with Atlanta, where the chicken littles shut down the airport for hours because some idiot ran down an up escalator.

I wonder how eager this guy’s buddies are to go hunting with him now?

A man whose hunting rifle discharged at a DFW ticket counter was allowed to board a later flight. Note that “airport operations were not interrupted.” Compare and contrast with Atlanta, where the chicken littles shut down the airport for hours because some idiot ran down an up escalator.

I wonder how eager this guy’s buddies are to go hunting with him now?

A man whose hunting rifle discharged at a DFW ticket counter was allowed to board a later flight. Note that “airport operations were not interrupted.” Compare and contrast with Atlanta, where the chicken littles shut down the airport for hours because some idiot ran down an up escalator.

I wonder how eager this guy’s buddies are to go hunting with him now?