Downtown Kabul, summer 2003: hope and despair live side by side. In internet cafes, Afghans go online. Foreigners join them to sip espressos and chat. The roads are choked with government limousines and gleaming suvs. But on those same streets, countless beggars struggle to survive. This is the story of Afghanistan: schools are being rebuilt, ministries are working. But one in five Afghans still dies before the age of five.

Beyond Kabul, powerful commanders, the warlords, still hold sway. And, in the south, the Taliban are returning to their strongholds. Now, nearly two years after Kabul became the focus of world attention, the U.S. is planning to triple its aid to the country. NATO peacekeeping troops are preparing to move into Kabul.

Guests:

Khaled Hosseini, author of “The Kite Runner,” a novel set in Afghanistan

Omar Zakhilwal, senior advisor to Afghanistan’s minister of rural reconstruction and development

Ian MacWilliams, BBC Correspondent in Kabul

Sarah Chayes, Kandahar Director, Afghans for Civil Society