Richard Holbrook

Celebrated at first by Obama on the White House lawn as a signal success marking the country's progress on the road to democracy, the Afghan election now looks like a monkey wrench thrown into the already stuttering engine of our mission there.

The sun bores down on the Shah Mansoor camp which has become a temporary home to thousands of displaced Pakistanis from the Swat area. In the stifling heat, the camp's residents sit idly, day after day, uncertain about their future.