This photo by Tyler Hicks for the New York Times ("A member of the Northern Alliance in Salong, Afghanistan, in 2001") looks so very medieval to me. This Afghan warrior, standing at attention, with his RPG shouldered, looks almost like he could be back in time, a soldier in Alexander's time, with a spear instead of a rocket launcher. It almost seems to suggest that war has always been a part of Afghanistan. In forty years will there be some futuristic soldier guarding in the same spot, looking largely the same?

Here are some more photographs from Tyler Hicks of Afghanistan.