A dense cloud of brown dust billowed up as a pair of CH-53 Super Stallions landed in a cornfield next to Patrol Base Jaker. U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry stepped out of the swirl wearing a dress shirt, but no body armor or helmet in a move meant to impress upon a U.S. network TV crew the improved safety in Helmand province’s Nawa district. The ambassador took a turn around the bazaar, trailed by two dozen heavily armed Marines and almost as many deputy ambassadors and civilian advisers. That was September 2009, when Eikenberry was flaunting his role as the top U.S. civilian in Afghanistan. Now that Ambassador Ryan Crocker has assumed that role, many are questioning Eikenberry’s legacy and what his departure means for Afghanistan — especially for the Nawa bazaar and the civilian advisers.

To Eikenberry at least, that legacy is clear. Before he left Kabul late in July he told the New York Times that he is most proud of helping stand up the Afghan National Army (ANA) and of overseeing the “civilian surge” — a wave of civilian experts meant to bolster the parallel military surge launched there last year. The assertion is astonishing to many observers, given the apparent failure of the civilian surge and the continued high attrition and corruption rates within the ANA. Instead, Eikenberry’s time in Afghanistan is likely to be characterized by the leak of classified cables to Washington last November, published in the New York Times.

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