Consider the latest from the war in Afghanistan: the new NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says he is determined to reduce civilian casualties in the country. This on the same day a bomb in Afghanistan killed a group traveling to a wedding, and the latest U.N. report suggests that more civilian deaths are now caused by the Taliban than by NATO forces.

Sadly, none of this makes for happy reading – people continue to die in a country already torn apart by decades of war.

Now consider this – from our man in Kabul, Ivan Watson. He says that he often hears people complaining less about the Taliban these days, and more about the Afghan government. Ivan told me that the Taliban operate mobile courts. They’ll pull up into villages and resolve disputes, providing services that the Afghan central government fails to provide. And, he says, NATO is aware of what they are doing and, off the record, are concerned about how the international community goes about propping up a government that can’t provide services that Taliban is offering .

With less than three weeks to go before the Afghan elections, we should expect spin and counter-spin from all those engaged in fighting this war. But we hear very little from those affected by what's going on. What's the real story behind closed doors?

Help us out – email me at connecttheworld@cnn.com and we'll use some of your thoughts as part of the show at 2100 BST tonight.