But every time a young Afghan loses his or her job because a Western company tied to America's presence here is packing up, the dependency is felt in a more profound way.

CNN: Obama, Romney: Ignore Afghanistan war at your own peril

Don't get us wrong, the 5103 still feels like a netbook, but toggling between windows and opening programs felt snappier than our Atom N450-packing Toshiba Mini NB305, though not as fast as the dual-core Atom D525-powered Eee PC 1215N or the AMD Athlon II Neo K325-powered Dell Inspiron M101z.

ENGADGET: HP Mini 5103 with dual-core Atom N550 performance review

But packing up and selling three generations of our family's leavings felt like betrayal.

NPR: Excerpt: 'The Garden Angel'