^[1]KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN: Last week a foreign military convoy zoomed through my neighborhood. I was going to the bazaar with a friend when I noticed it approaching.

My friend turned to me and said: “Hey, the street is not crowded, but still these soldiers are driving too fast.”

A taxi that was in front of the convoy did not slow down and make way, so a soldier fired one shot in the air as a warning. The driver got scared and stopped his car abruptly in the middle of the road.

I watched in disbelief as the first armored carrier bumped into the taxi and pushed it to the curbside. The convoy did not stop. A few seconds later all the armored vehicles had disappeared around the corner.

My friend and I walked up to the taxi. Two passengers were hurt. One woman held her neck and complained about the pain.

All the people in the street were displeased with the soldiers. One man said: “These foreigners can’t even take care of their own security, how can we expect them to protect us?” Another man said: “Look, they don’t care about us. They’re not here to help. They have their own aims.”

I think the second man was right. The people in the United States think that their army is here to help Afghanistan but if regular Americans came here to Kandahar to see how their soldiers behave they would understand that nobody really cares about us.