Afghanistan: just before the world's attention turned to Central Asia, veteran correspondence Edward Girardet returned to the country he had visited more than 40 times--and found murder, starvation, and despair. (Eyewitness: a firsthand look at a broken nation, from pre-Soviet days to the chaos of September).

It was midafternoon when we pulled into the parched, dust-blown settlement of Khvajeh Baha od Din in northern Afghanistan. Once a bleak as the bustling rear supply base for the forces of Afghanistan's leading anti-Taliban commander, Ahmad Shah Massoud. I had returned to Afghanistan to explore the impact of 23 straight, years of war on the country and its people, traveling with an old friend, Mohammad Shuaib, my interpreter and guide.

We drove up to a guesthouse with a courtyard and neatly planted flowers, operated by the foreign ministry of Massoud's Northern Alliance. Asim Suhail, ...

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