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In Kabul's 'Obama Market,' U.S. military rations on sale
First came the Brezhnev Market. Then the Bush Market.
Now Afghans are beginning to call their notorious bazaar full of chow and supplies bought or stolen from the vast U.S. military bases by the name of the current American president, a modest counterweight to his Nobel Peace Prize.
"It is Obama Market now," pronounced Haji Tor, a rotund shopkeeper who acts as kind of an unofficial chamber of commerce president for the market in the Afghan capital. "Bush is finished."
Well, maybe not quite yet. Most of the shopkeepers and customers still call it the Bush Market, but several said that the new name is gradually gaining traction.
The small market, tucked behind a commercial building in the northwest side of the city, is a U.S. taxpayer's nightmare.