Datelineóabove the garage, Portsmouth RI, 19 April

Reference: "Afghanistan Seeks Trade And Investors For Its Revival," by Carlotta Gall, New York Times, 19 April, p. A12.

Story about first international business conference in Afghanistan in over two decades. That, my friends, is serious disconnectedness, real isolation, and the essence of why all that nation can produce right now for export is heroin (roughly half its GDP).

Will the Taliban do whatever it can to kill whatever embryonic financial and business connectivity emerges from such efforts? You bet. Once that connectivity takes root, and there is an option for trade outside of poppies, what exactly does the Taliban offer the population besides a return to the past?