Sitting in a restaurant in Kabul, I was introduced to an American journalist. As usual, the first thing I asked him was whether it was his first time in this part of the world. Unsurprisingly, his answer was very derogatory. "No, I have been to a couple Badistans before," he...

With President Obama's order to inject more troops into Afghanistan, tension has risen among the ordinary Afghans in the countryside, especially in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, where most of the new troops are expected to be deployed to tackle the spreading insurgency.

With 30,000 new American troops...