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SHERGAH -- The village of Shergah is near the police headquarters in Khakriz. In a long afternoon, the police could march there, search the multiple suspected Taliban hideouts, and have enough time left over to laze and nap amid the vineyards and pomegranate orchards, next to babbling canals, before a hike back for lunch at the station house. The police would like very much to do exactly that, because it knows members of the Taliban live there. But lack of resources has made the police visits rare: when officers step into Shergah at dawn this morning, they will be there for the first time in nearly four years.

CHENAR -- When NATO soldiers arrive in a new and potentially hostile settlement, they talk to villagers and listen for signs, however oblique or fleeting, of friendliness. Today, after raiding, searching, and cordoning the village of Chenar, they hear two such signs. The first is an invitation to sit down for tea. The second was a comment from Muhammad Hassan, 50, a shopkeeper. "If the Taliban come here, we will drink their blood."

ARGHANDAB -- The Afghan National Army has small bases in Arghandab, just outside Kandahar, and a handful of armored vehicles have assembled outside the gates of one. In the distance to the north is a modest range of mountains, and in the south is a dry, flat empty plain. We are planning an early-morning departure for Kharkiz, but in the meantime the soldiers have promised me an afternoon of the hottest and most unpleasant down-time I can imagine.

This post is by Anup Kaphle

HELMAND - I am not used to my appearance working in my favor. But one of the most frequent compliments I've bagged in Afghanistan is that I look like an Afghan, talk like an Afghan, and without my heavy load of body armor could possibly pass as one. (Graeme has this affliction, too, and is often taken for a freakishly tall Hazara.)