A non-trivial distinction...

Strange field report from the Guardian today:

One interesting anecdote may indicate that some things in some areas are going in the right direction - or perhaps are not. On Jaid-e-Maiwand I spoke to a contractor from the eastern Paktia province, usually seen as a hotbed of warlordism. I asked him how security was in his hometown. "Not bad," he answered. Who is the local commander, I asked.

Previously, this was a standard inquiry as it was always the local warlord who was seen as the biggest power in any given location. However, the contractor, a craggy-faced elder with a henna-died beard and a superb turban, looked perplexed.

Then he gave me the name of the local police chief. Did he mean that the police chief was a warlord? Or that the police actually have some degree of authority where he lived? Difficult to say. What is clear however is that things, for good or ill, are changing in Afghanistan.

What's really difficult to say is why the Observer correspondent Jason Burke, who is traveling with the British troops, didn't follow up with the man to clarify. This is not a trivial distinction! And here we're left dangling with the truism that "for good or ill, are changing". Very disappointing end to an otherwise interesting piece (read his other two posts as well). . .