Navigating America's Other War

Kudos to TIME for getting it right on Afghanistan [April 20]. Cash-for-work job programs are the best initial solution in a country where Taliban commanders, financed by opium and other illegal activities, are buying the loyalty of poverty-stricken young men. It may come as a surprise to many Americans that fitness and weight-lifting are fast-growing crazes in Kabul, and a popular cult figure is California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. To many young Afghans, he embodies the virtues of discipline, goal-setting and accomplishment. Afghans prefer the U.S. to the Taliban, but they have suffered too long from 40% unemployment and a reconstruction that...

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