Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Exactly 10 years ago, a brutal civil war was being fought in Afghanistan as rebels advanced on the Taliban in the capital, Kabul. From the former five-star Intercontinental Hotel -- a luxury hotel without TVs which were banned by the Taliban -- we watched as the rebels launched a daring raid on the airport. We could see the rockets flying in and flames coming from the fuel dumps and damaged aircraft. A few hours later we heard about the attacks in the United States. The Intercontinental was where we watched the civil war, and where we were on 9/11 though the TV ban meant bizarrely we could not watch those events, and it was where the Taliban foreign minister denied Osama bin Laden's involvement. This year it came under attack from the Taliban.
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The Intercontinental Hotel has entertained diplomats and come under Taliban attack
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One of the hardest lessons of the past decade is the failure of the international community to step up
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President Karzai's weaknesses have also limited what can be achieved in the country
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Kabul enjoys a veneer of security but the rest of the country is open to Taliban violence
It's frustrating that the window of opportunity that was there at the beginning was missed -- when all the @placeholder wanted was weapons and warlords to be removed and disarmed so that they could have a normal life.