[Paladin2]

Afghanistan was better in the 60s. Then fundamental islam.

[Fraxinus]

Afghanistan was better in the 60s.

I think that was the last time Afghanistan had a national government that was considered legitimate by the majority of the population in all provinces. Thus the overwhelming majority of the population has no memory of a functioning central government. A first step would be for whoever is going to be the central government is to explain to the people out in the smaller villages why they need one

[Travis McGee]

[Rockingham]

Correct. In the 1960s, the children of US diplomats safely went unescorted on the streets of Kabul. Afghan women were schooled at the university level in Western dress.

Then Khomeni and the Iranian revolution toppled the Shah in Iran, thereby spurring the rise of fundamentalist Islam throughout the Muslim world. The Russian invasion of Afghanistan and ensuing insurgency then helped shatter and radicalize traditional Afghan society along Islamist lines.

Today, despite the failure of the Western development effort to fully take hold, Afghanis continue to hate the Taliban and like the improvements in life that the US and the West brought. Indeed, polling shows that Afghani optimism for their national future is consistently above 60 per cent -- which makes them far more optimistic than Americans.