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Michael talks to Kyra Phillips about the lack of progress in Afghanistan -- what is there to show for eight years of combat there? In the second hour of her program, another showing of the Highway #1 piece, but with a different beginning.
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MICHAEL
WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Afghanistan is
hurting badly. Eight years after America's war began
here, the combat continues with the death tolls among
coalition soldiers, Afghan security forces and
civilians ever rising.
Politically, it's little better, with the nation in
limbo. The final results of last month's presidential
election have been stalled by a storm of corruption
allegations. But it wasn't meant to be this way.
Having turned its back on Afghanistan throughout the
1990s, once the Soviet army lost its war here, the
United States has spent these eight years trying to
make good on its past neglect. But true, undeniable
success is hard to see.
(on camera) For most ordinary Afghans, this perhaps
is the simplest, clearest measure of that. This is
Highway Number 1. It's here that Kabul ends, and 300
miles down that road is Kandahar and the Taliban
heartland.
I remember when taking the journey from Kandahar to
Kabul was more than 12 exhausting hours, but in 2004
American aid money repaved this road and cut that
down to a mere five or six. Now, that journey is back
to nine or ten hours. There's at least three known
Taliban checkpoints on this American-paved highway.
People are being pulled off buses and executed by the
Taliban.
(voice-over) Truck driver Mohammed Qasim runs this
Taliban gauntlet once a week. He hauls fuel in this
tanker. The road, he says, is in terrible shape,
wrecked by explosions. Drivers are left completely
exposed.
"It's been blown up by land mines and there is no
security on it," he says. A father of three, Qasim
has to provide for his children. He takes his life in
his hands each time he travels Highway 1. "I'm
compelled," he tells me. "How else do we eat? There's
simply no alternative."
Highway 1 looks like this. It is one of the most
vital arteries in Afghanistan, rebuilt with almost
$300 million in American aid money. Its asphalt rolls
out from the capital, Kabul, to the west towards
Kandahar, the nation's second largest city and a
political epicenter.
(on camera) And this is the other end of that road.
Kandahar is just a short distance down there; Kabul,
hundreds of miles that way. But here in Kandahar,
this is a city surrounded by pockets of Taliban
resistance. Indeed, just a few miles down that dirt
road is a Taliban-controlled district. A few miles up
the highway is the first Taliban checkpoint.
The fact that the Taliban's been able to strangle the
life out of this highway is a testament to the fact
that there's simply not enough American, British,
international or Afghan troops to secure it. What had
once been an American project, hailed as a sign of
progress, has now become a mark of a mission in
crisis.
Michael Ware, CNN, Kandahar.