Afghanistan's a mess. Iraq is . . .

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.afgha.com/?af=article&sid=38812

theage.com.au
November 19, 2003

Nicholas Kristof
Here's a foreign affairs quiz:

1. In the two years since the war in Afghanistan, opium production has: (A) virtually been eliminated by Hamid Karzai's Government and American forces; (B) declined 30 per cent, but eradication is not expected until 2008; (C) soared 19-fold and become the major source of the world's heroin.

2. In Paktika and Zabul, two religiously conservative parts of Afghanistan, the number of children going to school has: (A) quintupled, with most girls at least finishing third grade; (B) risen 40 per cent; (C) plummeted as poor security has closed nearly all schools.

The correct answer to both questions, alas, is (C).

With the White House finally acknowledging that the challenge in Iraq runs deeper than gloomy journalism, the talk of what to do next is sounding rather like Afghanistan. And that's alarming, because America has flubbed the peace in Afghanistan even more egregiously than in Iraq. snip

If Afghanistan is a White House model for Iraq, heaven help us.

more

[Swede]

1. Now which country can Bush free next?

[Robin Hood]

2. How about this one.

He can free us from his existence.

[Solomon]

3. Get back up there.

Kick it for a while. :kick:

[bpilgrim]

4. 3. How many cities in the south have been rebuilt?

a. about %20 with work under way in another %20
b. almost all are finished with democratic gov's operating in over %50
c. actually a few have been recaptured by the TALIBAN and the rest are surrounded

whaddaya know c again...

peace

[Minstrel Boy]

5. Ah, but the CIA genuinely regards cornering the world's heroin market

as a roaring success.