Survivor: Kabul Embassy Style

Think a Foreign Service posting in Iraq sounds tough? Try Afghanistan. The cabin fever at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul apparently is so bad that one official compares it with the TV show Survivor: "Everyone there is on edge, tired of seeing the same people." A few dozen U.S. staffers are restricted to two small compounds, connected by a tunnel. Baghdad may be more treacherous, but the problem in Kabul is that U.S. diplomats are allowed out only with full security escorts. Troubling when you consider most of those escort teams have been sent to Iraq."We can't send people out with the frequency necessary to maintain proper contacts with Afghans," says one official. One recent visitor met a U.S. diplomat who hadn't left the embassy in over six months.

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