AFGHANISTAN *IN EVERY* AFTERMATH

KABUL - AFGHANISTAN : THE LONG UNENDING WAR grinds on, and brave and fearless reporters risking all scramble to discern fact from fiction.

Two wars are convulsing in Afghanistan : the war of blood and guts and the war of truth and lies.

Both have been amassing casualties at a remarkable rate recently.

The first is that messy war in which, just in the past week, more than 40 high school students were  blown to pieces in the their classroom-

Hundreds of bodies were left abandoned for a week in the streets of the city of  Ghazni or dumped in a river, and, and two important Afghan National Army units were destroyed almost to the last soldier.

The other is the war  in which most of that, according to official accounts. did not happen - or at least was not as bad as it sounded .

Not until late on the third day of the Taliban's assault on Ghazni did President Ashraf Ghan's aides even inform him of the desperation level there.

By then Taliban had control of nearly every neighborhood.

Government spokesmen, confronted with a crisis, basically responded by asserting that everything was fine.

They repeatedly denied that Taliban fighters were in control of Ghazni. By day 6, when the insurgents no longer were in control, officials denials converged with the truth.

The American military's chief spokesman, Lt. Col. Martin L. O'Donnell. insisted there was no big problem - just insurgents looking for ''inconsequential headlines.''

Discerning fact from fiction is challenging in any war, of course.

But in Afghanistan, where most of the population has known only war, narratives are often total contradictions of one another.

The sad honor and serving of that latest Operational Research Publishing on Afghanistan continues  The World Students Society thanks author Rod Nordland.