All too often the focus is in the South and East, not the North:
Some of them quiver in diffraction only a few miles away from Mazar-e-Sharif, the provincial capital.

Four weeks after the Taliban announced the beginning of their annual spring offensive, the insurgents have quietly taken over most of Balkh.

(Later) Or maybe because they realize that they are trapped, as Afghans have been forever, between armed men in different uniforms contesting their wretched land. Maybe they are simply hoping to get through the latest torment.
Link:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...lages?page=0,1

Note the author is not an 'embedded' journalist.