If you want to see rapid economic development and growth in Afghanistan, the cities are not the place to go. Instead, head due south, about an hour south of Kandahar to here, Kandahar Airfield, or KAF.

With the Obama administration’s decision to “surge” an additional 17,500 troops plus 4,000 trainers and the influx of civilians, the massive military base is quickly expanding. This is seemingly hard to believe to anyone who has been here before. There already are several gyms, hair salons and game rooms. Most notably, there is a massive boardwalk where you can eat Subway, Pizza Hut or Burger King all while watching the Canadians play hockey in a large ring situated nearby.

(Between us, I call this place Camp Cupcake, a term I stole from a Marine friend of mine, because it often feels as far away from war as one can get.  I returned from an embed the other day to find a mini golf course laid out in the middle of the boardwalk. This seemed wrong to me somehow.)

And yet the base is growing to accommodate the surge. More housing, more shops, more gyms, more people. More everything.

The funny thing is that it is growing much like a poorly-planned suburb. It’s disorganized, and key places keep moving to adjust to the expansion. Indeed, there is already blight here. The old PX, which sat near the Taliban’s last stand and used to be bustling with customers just a few months ago now it sits abandoned. A newer, nicer facility opened closer to the housing tents. This place is also growing too fast for its sewage system, and so foul air hangs over the base at night all the time.

I worry what this all looks like to the Afghans. At the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates often talks about how the coalition cannot look like an occupation. I don’t see how Afghans can look at the expansion of KAF, particularly as their quality of life deteriorates, as anything but. At the minimum, this place is about as far from the everyday Afghan and infantrymen’s experience as one can get.