 The first thing I noticed about Kabul was the smell. It smelled like a city on fire but it wasn't. It took some time for us to realize that we had truly traveled from the 21st century back in time to a city that had no electric grid to speak of, no sewage system and only one major road leading out of town. So what we smelled was not a city burning but a combination of diesel-powered generators spewing smoke and fumes, burning trees and brush, the stench of sewage being burned and a miasma of sand and haze that hung over the parched, dry valley in which Kabul sat. And it didn't get much better as the time wore on.
 First, we were hustled into two Ford excursions outfitted as best the military could to protect us from bullets and bombs. As we navigated the dark, dusty road from the airport to the US base in the center of town, our driver and the officer in the passenger seat looked warily around at passing bikes, trucks, cars and pedestrians. If a bike got too close, a chase car would appear at our side to block it from getting close to us. Why? "This area is called 'ambush alley,'" remarked the major in charge of the drive. Just six weeks earlier, he told us, an American solider was killed in a similar vehicle by a suicide bomber who rammed the car and shot it eighty feet in the air.
For us, though, the ride was uneventful but as we got closer, we had a strong hint of why the US was in Afghanistan to begin with. As we passed a walled compound adjacent to the street we were driving on, we could see metal bolts nailed into the wall. What were they, I asked. Our escort told us that these were places enemies of the Taliban were brought to be publicly flogged for violations, real or imagined, of Islamic law. It was sobering to consider that only NATO forces stood between the people of Afghanistan, trying to rebuild their lives, and the Taliban who still hid in the dark corners of the cities, towns and hills of Afghanistan.
Finally, sixteen hours after leaving New York and one hair-raising trip into town we were safe and sound at Camp Eggers, the US base in Kabul. We first sat down for dinner with a number of senior commanders not just from the US but from Canada and Poland. The Canadian general was particularly concerned that so little of the progress made in Afghanistan gets out to the public. "Look," he said, "we traveled up the river valley from the town of Jalalabad to where farmers were busy in the field and the road was safe. People going about their business is good news here, but no one knows about it in the outside world," complained the general. Indeed, time and again, the troops and their commanders wanted us to know that things are getting better and that the Afghan army and police are improving day by day. But the mainstream media refuses to acknowledge it.
 After dinner, Bill headed over to "the Clamshell," a large enclosed area in the middle of the base to meet the troops, hand out some Factor gear and thank the troops for their service. The line snaked around the building, but by the end of the evening, everyone had a chance to meet Bill and talk to him about the work they do on our behalf.
 But as positive as most of those we met sounded, clearly, serious obstacles remain. The next morning, we drove under heavy guard to the US embassy in Kabul and got a sobering assessment of the challenges our forces and those from our NATO allies face from the US ambassador to Afghanistan, William Woods. As he put it, it is hard to talk about "reconstruction" of the country when it presumes there was once "construction" here. In fact, it remains a land with few roads, grinding poverty, torn by tribal factionalism and trying to cope with a growing opium problem that is hard to contain.
 We got some sense of the logistical issues our troops deal with every day when we were taken by Blackhawk helicopter from Kabul to Bagram Airbase, some fifteen minutes flying time away. The terrain is mountainous and barren; no trees, no grass, just some mud compounds scattered here and there across the brown landscape. Hunting for the enemy in such country and trying to build an infrastructure without roads, power, and basics we have come to expect in the west is a daunting task.
Landing at Bagram, we found a spartan facility that was a little bit of America in a very foreign land. While Bill was given a tour of the flight line by the two-star general in command of the facility, the rest of the team, including me,  headed off to our sleeping quarters, a bare bones barracks that gave us all appreciation for the commitment of our troops to the mission. Yes, the mess halls are full of food familiar to any American and on top of that there are fast food restaurants and a state of the art gym as well. But make no mistake; you know you are far, far away from home.
The two days we spent at Bagram were a whirlwind of activity. Bill patiently spent hours meeting and greeting troops, visiting the doctors and nurses at the modern hospital on base (which, incidentally, was treating a number of Afghan children while we were there), and doing a one-hour radio broadcast for the Armed Services Radio Network. The weather cooperated with us with sunny skies and mild temperatures in the day but with cold evening temperatures-not great for running to the men's room a building away in the middle of the night! But it could have been much worse; our military guides pointed out that summer temperatures reach over 120 degrees but plunge to well below freezing with snow in the winter. Add to this mix a mile-high base surrounded by towering brown peaks and a nasty wind carrying sand through the valley and you get a sense of just how difficult the conditions under which our troops operate are.
Three days after we arrived in Afghanistan, it was time to head back to civilization. Even our takeoff, though, highlighted the ongoing struggle to put an end to the Taliban and their efforts to destabilize the country. Our capable pilot gunned the engines and headed straight up to reach an altitude safe from a potential missile launch before we headed out of Bagram air space. Once again, we flew over steep mountains that could be hiding the al-Qaeda leadership and certainly its Taliban allies, leaving behind thousands of committed troops from the Navy, the Air Force and the Army who understand the mission and what it takes to win.
Factor Postscript: Just two weeks after our visit on the very same day the Secretary of Defense was in Kabul, a suicide car bomber did in fact attack a convoy just outside the airport gates. Luckily, no American was killed but, unfortunately, two Afghans died and a dozen were injured in the blast. As the officer in charge of our safety wrote to me about this latest attack, "All in a day's work in a combat zone."
David Tabacoff is the executive producer of The O'Reilly Factor.
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