The media notices that Afghanistan still exists: film at 11. Afghanistan: What's Gone Wrong? - World Opinion Roundup (washingtonpost.com, 9/06) is a mini-retrospective with comments from international newspapers and US reader comments about the US' failure to nation-build Afghanistan into a place the US could hold up as a model. The Taliban and other warlord-type forces are thriving; only the capital appears to be under the US-backed government's control; the cultural benefits to women and peace benefits to everyone aren't in effect over most of the land; and many of the rebuilding promises that were made in the past have not been delivered.

The U.S. reader comments are entertaining, as always. It's the usual recent mix of:
(a) these people are hopeless (and so our failure isn't our fault)
(b) it was a great idea and we were completely entitled to involve ourselves, but our military campaign was mismanaged
(c) our PR wasn't good enough
(d) how dare you doubt the US' cause - you are hurting the troops, and
(e) wow, this was just as bad as we thought it would be, it really ought to stop now.

People rarely ask the Afghans what they want in these discussions, which makes them all the more curious as an exercise.