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A Letter [with the real facts] from Kabul

Michael Shank is the communications director for US Congressman Michael Honda.

Writing in The Nation, he portrays what is really going on in Kabul - and not air-brushed as governments and media have. As Obama commits another 30,000 military to Afghanistan, the Shank's piece makes for sober reading.

"Returning to Washington this week, after a whirlwind tour in Afghanistan, I am dizzy, not from delight but from the overwhelming disconnect between rhetoric stateside and reality Asia-side. Thankfully, my boss, Congressman Michael Honda, chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus's Afghanistan Taskforce, is trying to penetrate this rhetoric and advocate that reality. But it is not an easy job, especially in a town where sound bites often usurp sound analysis. This week, as I drafted talking points for the Congressman in preparation for an interview with the Wall Street Journal, I stumbled, not on words but on emotion. What I had just experienced in Afghanistan was so far afield from the Washington majority thought that I found the moment simultaneously disabling and empowering--both of which stem from feeling like a lone voice on a complex conflict. This returner's culture shock was not a result of neophyte glo-betrotting as I've worked in conflict zones throughout the Middle East and Asia; it stemmed from a deep disappointment with how Washington is disconnected from the reality on the ground."

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