U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry traveled to a place that offers a vision of a different future for Afghanistan, peaceful and prosperous: the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
Governor Atta Mohammad is the man who is credited with making this entire province secure enough to prosper after he helped drive out the Taliban. He is one of the most successful examples of a warlord, turned politician. An educated man, striding through the bazaar in a well-tailored suit alongside the American ambassador.
“There’s prosperity. There’s hope. There’s order there,” said Eikenberry. “And yes, it should give us confidence that if we can get the government up and running in parts of the country where there is insecurity right now, yeah, I’d leaved a place like Mazar-e-Sharif saying that it’s possible to get things quite right in this country.”