Losing Afghanistan Twice Over

Some readers of Newsweek read a cover story in the October 2, 2006 issue titled "Losing Afghanistan: The Rise of Jihadistan," but not readers in the United States. Editions destined for Asia, Latin America, and Europe provided an in-depth analysis of the situation in Afghanistan and the failures of the U.S.-led war such as, "The harsh truth is that five years after the US invasion on Oct. 7, 2001, most of the good news is confined to Kabul, with its choking rush-hour traffic jams, a construction boom and a handful of air-conditioned shopping malls. Much of the rest of Afghanistan appears to be failing again. Most worrisome, a new failed-state sanctuary is emerging across thousands of square miles along the Afghan-Pakistan border: 'Jihadistan,' it could be called." Readers in the U.S. instead were given a retrospective of the career of photographer Annie Leibovitz.