Zabul Province. Model of Stability?

The NY Times ran a piece about Zabul province about a month ago. I found it interesting that the place where we witnessed so many casualties was being touted as a model of stability, security and hope for Afghanistan's future. Granted, our mission was behind the wire and it would be wrong to imply that our surgical team had the best access to either intelligence or the perspective of the average resident of Zabul. Still it seems remarkable to me that this is the best that we can hope for.