"Not A Speck Of Dust"

AP:

Assailants stormed Kabul's most popular luxury hotel Monday, killing at least six people as they hunted down Westerners who cowered in a gym -- a coordinated assault that could signal a new era of brazen Taliban attacks.

Despite heavy security at the Serena Hotel, the gunmen threw grenades and fired AK-47 assault rifles, and one blew himself up. An American and a journalist from Norway were among the dead, officials said.

It was the deadliest direct attack on a hotel in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The assailants appeared to concentrate their assault on the Serena's gym and spa, where foreigners relax and work out at night, suggesting that the assailants had cased the hotel.

Context: the Serena is the only five-star hotel in Afghanistan. It's in the heart of Kabul's relatively secure government center, and is the best option in the city for foreign officials and executives. The security is probably among the tightest of any hotel in the world. In 2006, it was featured in this New York Times article as an "emerging destination."

Take a look at the photos on the hotel's website here. Note the caption below this photo. Get a sense of the security here and here. And an unheeded sign here.

For those trying to prevent Afghanistan from joining the rest of the world, there might not have been a better target than the Serena. Foreign investors bring development expertise and capital. But before they'll come, they need to feel somewhat confident they won't get gunned down on a treadmill in their hotel's gym. Make it clear that there's no safe haven -- not even the most protected hotel in the most secure part of a country's largest city -- and you affect the flow of much-needed investment capital from abroad.

Simple, cost-effective, and depressing.