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ONLY! *cough* ONLY? 18 months ago iirc was not the whole country in the hands of one of the most brutal, evil governments the world has seen since pol pot? spreading its tentacles of hatred and terror like cancer through the very fabric of world unity?
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It was a brutal regime - BUT it was ruled as a religious one.
Yes indeed, punishments for crimes were certainly severe by our standards.
Yes indeed they refused to accept our social values - I mean, you could never buy a good porn mag in Kabul and hell, these toads would not allow you to watch a movie with blood and gore.
But the people *did* have freedom from bullets and freedom from terror, provided that they didn't challenge the system - the Taliban had ultimate control over the warlords. Today, there is nothing that they can do to avoid the terror as brutal warlords fight for petty gain and the people are caught in the middle.
Our improvements have included doubling the number of people at risk from starvation, massive casualties from unexploded ordinance, a million extra refugees and absolute lawlessness outside Kabul, where those with a gun have more rights than those without. Nice going.
You are right - we've had 18 months to sort this mess out - but we've forgotten Afghanistan in that time - a very short time to forget so many.
Some people do indeed have a very short memory - allow me to remind you that the Afghan situation is far from resolved:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=389803
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=391773
http://www.developmentgateway.org/no...w?docid=428104
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?R...n=Central_Asia
and even Kabul has major problems not seen under the Taliban:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?R...n=Central_Asia
18 months is a short time to forget the mess we left behind...