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KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -FEBRUARY 13: An Afghan bikes down a snowy street as a snowstorm hits Kabul for a second straight day closing the airport February 13, 2009 in Kabul Afghanistan. The storm hasn’t delayed the visit of the new U.S regional envoy Richard Holbrooke who landed yesterday to help push President Obama’s strategy a day after a bold Taliban assault on the Jusitce ministry and the prisons department on Wednesday. Afghanistan has frequently accused extremists based in Pakistan’s tribal areas or Pakistan’s spy service of being behind several major attacks in Kabul. The latest attack is a reminder of challenges facing Obama as he increases troop levels promising up to 30,000 more troops.
(Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Take all that friction between the White House and Karzai, add in the buzz surrounding Obama’s Blackberry and the fact the guy in this ad looks like a youngish black executive type (the “enterprise server”) kicking back in lovely weather, then factor in the circumstances of U.S. point man, enforcer and super(man)-envoy Richard Holbrooke hitting Kabul to tell Karzai how it is (a day after the Taliban attacked the Justice Ministry and the Prisons Department), and voilá, you’ve got the springboard — between the guy overhead and the representative Afghani slogging it out on the bike through this snowstorm — to explain all kinds of fissures and 1st world/3rd world resentments.

(image: Paula Bronstein – Kabul, Afghanistan, February 13, 2009)

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Michael Shaw
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