Yon always tells the truth, no matter how painful. He is the most accurate, up to date war correspondent, first in Iraq and now Afghanistan. I hope his reports become more positive in the near future. God bless him and our fighting men and women.
But the facts are we are talking about a region of the world that was living in the dark ages (again, literally). Of course progress will be a two steps forward one step back type situation -
Yon's, assessments here are naive (and he knows it). But in order to sell, you have to come with a POV....and selling chaos and dire is always easier.....
There are difficult situations left in Stan (from Poppie fields, internal) to dealing with the border regions including Pak's border regions.......
But the reality is the fighting is (and has been heading) in the outward bound direction in Stan.....We are constantly pushing deeper into our enemies retreat.....Not the other way around.