AP Photo

I was taking tea with a former Mujahideen fighter pilot in the Safi Landmark hotel in Kabul when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the lobby. My companion remained unperturbed as guests rushed for cover. When a guard said three more bombers were loose in the building, he barely blinked.

Such sangfroid is a feature of a city that has endured years of violence. But behind the brave face put on by Kabulis there is fear: fear for what the withdrawal of foreign troops might mean; fear for what the Taliban will do next; and fear that the country is headed inexorably for a new round of civil war.