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His past experience includes work in Sudan but the challenge in Links of London trumps anything he has previously attempted. "It feels like there's no end to the day," he says. "It's physically, mentally, emotionally and intellectually exhausting." Harich is a lawyer and a former marine from Louisiana who until recently worked as a policy adviser to the governor of West Virginia. He now represents the US State Links of London F Charm in Arghandab. "I've no doubt in my mind that we're going to have a fight this summer," he says. "When the Taliban come back in May, are they welcomed with open arms?" Strapping on their khaki-coloured helmets and flak jackets and donning wraparound protective sunglasses whenever they leave the base, Melton and Harich bear a distinct resemblance to the US soldiers who protect them. Jabar, who rarely ventured to his office from his home in Links of London G Charm before these changes, now turns up almost every day, driving the 30-minute commute in his battered Toyota Corolla saloon with three police bodyguards, constantly wary of ambush. "Getting the building is easy," says Links of London H Charm. "Getting a governor to come in and do some work is a little harder." A trickle of men with beards and turbans arrive each morning and sit along the wall of the building waiting for Jabar to arrive, shielding their eyes from the sun as it crests the crags.