It's been a week of mayhem in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan It was almost a traditional holiday. There were two Butterball turkeys, complete with pop-up thermometers, procured from friends of friends. There was a vat of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce, bought at the Bush Bazaar, a market in the city where goods that seem to have fallen off US military trucks find their way into the local economy.
Many of the guests were hyphenated Americans, and the toast at the onset of the feast brought a tear to even the most cynical eye.
This is a very special holiday for me, said a woman born in Iran, her voice trembling. We will always be grateful to the United States for giving us safety from the war and destruction in our home countries.
But it had been a difficult day for Kabul residents. The morning started off with a massive suicide attack against a British convoy that killed six and injured some 35 more.
Two of the dead were employees of the British Embassy, and all of the guests at the Thanksgiving celebration, who included Afghan dignitaries, UN officials, aid workers, and the occasional journalist could feel the war drawing uncomfortably close.
Barely had the first golden, crispy bird been cut when reports came that another attack was underway in central Kabul, in one of the most heavily guarded parts of the city.
A suicide bomber had breached the defenses of a guesthouse belonging to the International Relief & Development (IRD) organization. Gunmen were apparently still in the compound, resisting Afghan police.
The party talk grew a bit nervous, the television was turned on, but instead of football the screen alternated between CNN and Tolo, one of Afghanistans premier news outlets.
Several guests were stuck in place, since their respective security advisers said it was too dangerous to move around the city. So the festivities continued, with a bit of a Masque of the Red Death air about them.
Finally, at about 11:30 p.m., most everyone was home, safe, and ready to put the day away. But then the bombs started again. For more than an hour, blasts rocked the city, punctuated by gunfire. Helicopters circled overhead, and only the bravest or most foolhardy were able to sleep.
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It's been a week of mayhem in Afghanistan