Back before the warbloggers found their shiny new Iraq toy under the tree, nothing could inspire howls of righteous rage more than suggesting that maybe, just maybe, the Bush administration wasn't doing all it had promised to do in Afghanistan (Afghaniwhut?). The rhetoric was fairly similar (in Afghanistan it was "aren't you glad that girls can go to school?", in Iraq it's just "the schools!").
But, no one talks about Afghanistan much. It's rather a shame. After 9/11, a lot of the best of this country were on display. Sure, there were those who wanted to "nuke them all," but there was also much genuine concern for the people of Afghanistan. Books about the country were flying off the shelves at bookstores. That war too was quickly appropriated by the jingoists. You know, those pesky human rights organizations concerned about things like cluster bombs were regularly blasted for not having ever cared about the atrocities of the Taliban (right).
But, 2 and a half years later it's pretty obvious that whatever we were supposed to do in Afghanistan didn't get done. Arguably, there wasn't much of a point of going there at all, at least not given the way it's been handled.
The thing is, poppy production is up. Way up. With that comes money to bad people. Money to bad people means power to bad people.
