Granted, Afghanistan has a long way to go. The writ of the central government of interim President Hamid Karzai runs only so far. Opium growing — banned by the Taliban — has resurged, sending vast quantities of heroin to Europe by way of Iran and Central Asia and making an estimated profit of $2.3 billion last year for the country's warlords. The Taliban, in loose alliance with a militia loyal to warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has reestablished itself and is harassing the U.S. military and Western aid groups working in the south and east of the country.

Throughout the nation, a land where life expectancy is a mere 43 years, the absence of infrastructure and of access to clean water and medical facilities takes a terrible toll in lives of infants and mothers. And a drought has devastated agriculture.

Yet, partly because of the $1.3 billion in assistance provided by the United States and other international donors, partly because of the commitment of aid workers who brave attacks and sometimes death in their dedication to save the country, and mostly through the work of Afghans themselves, a rebirth is taking place in much of the nation.

The national road system is being renewed, with the first link of almost 300 miles between Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar completed, reducing a three-day journey to six or seven hours. The next link in a ring of highways around the rugged, Texas-sized nation is being built with U.S. funding from Kandahar to Herat in the west. European and Asian donors, meanwhile, are renovating roads to the north.