This image of Afghanistan might be hard to wrap your head around, but it's totally accurate. Prior to three-plus decades of war, Afghanistan, and Kabul in particular, had a pretty solid setup, one that westerners would often visit.

Sadly, the image on the right is likely to remain a reality for the foreseeable future.

Taken by amateur photographer Dr. William F. Podlich in the 1960s, the two women are his daughters (Afghan women, even most men, don't bare arms or legs in public), this and other pictures show westerners and Afghans in western-style clothing, clean streets, and buildings without any bullet holes.