From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is the Daily.

Today, Afghanistan. It was barely mentioned in this year's election.

But while US attention has turned from the Taliban to ISIS, the Taliban is back stronger than ever,

and the government is on the brink of collapse.

The view from the streets of Kabul and from the Pentagon.

It's Wednesday, June 7th.

In my parents, they have these images. They have these experiences that they talk about of a different Kabul.

In 60s and 70s.

The concerts, open concerts, of cinemas, of coffee shops, of rooftop bars.

My colleague, Mujeev Masha'al, grew up in Kabul and is now a reporter there.

They have an nostalgia for that past that increasingly it seems imaginary to me.

Because I just cannot connect that nostalgia they have for the current reality.

I think the way we describe life in the cities, it's almost, it's always become a game of chance.

Some days, some people are just not lucky.

In the countryside, every month, every day, you hear stories of a wedding convoy over an ID.

Just beginning of new life, ended before it's even started.

There's no front line to this war.

But the front line could be in front of your office. It could be as you're leaving home.

It could be at the bus stop. It could be at the market where you're buying groceries.

Any moment, any day, anywhere around the city is a possibility of something like this happening.

On our right is just a full row of tall blast walls.

So my family lives in north of the city and our offices, the New York Times Bureau, is right in the diplomatic quarter of the city.

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