What's an Afghanistan?

First the media called it a quagmire. When that story didn't pan out, the media just ignored it. Afghan democracy is probably the single greatest achievement of the Bush administration so far. Read this great piece over at the Opinion Journal on the good news in Afghanistan that is being ignored by the mainstream media. This quote is great:

Badam, a Pashtun nomad, might have been the oldest voter in Afghanistan's presidential election. While birth records are sparse in his country, Badam's mother had once told him he was born in the year of zeym (the inundation), as 1894 is still remembered in collective memory--which would make Badam 110 years old:

Badam is old enough to remember some of the crucial moments in Afghanistan's early twentieth-century history. During the reign of the modernising King Amanullah [1919-29], he fought under Khan Haji against British forces. "At that time I was a handsome boy and I had the strength to fight against British," he said.
Now, by voting, Badam said he felt as if he had struck another blow for Afghan independence. "I know it's not appropriate for my age, but I danced the Atan [a traditional Pashtun dance] today because it's one of the happiest days of my life," he said.

He said he could count such days on the fingers of one hand. "The first was on my second wedding day, which was a love match, and the second was five years later, when I became father of a son," he said. "The third is today, when I decide my own destiny."

Congratulations Badam! Freedom is great, isn't it?

Just a reminder:

"Afghanistan: escalating opposition to the US occupation."- World Socialist Web Site, 11/03.

When the United States-led coalition overthrew the Taliban in November 2001, Afghans were promised a new era of democracy and respect for human rights.... For many Afghans, the end of the Taliban?s uniquely oppressive rule was indeed a liberation. Yet almost one year later, the human rights situation in most of the country remains grim." - "Human Rights Watch, 11/02

"The Taliban [is] ready to fight an endless war of attrition, and the fundamental questions facing the US-led coalition will be the same: Is it possible to install any Afghan government with a popular base and sufficient integrity to rule? Can this new leadership keep the battle-hardened Taliban in check militarily? If not, is the US public prepared for the possibility of an endless and costly quagmire?" - The Nation, 10/01

"Could Afghanistan become another Vietnam? Is the United States facing another stalemate on the other side of the world? Premature the questions may be, three weeks after the fighting began. Unreasonable they are not, given the scars scoured into the national psyche by defeat in Southeast Asia." - The New York Times, 10/01
- posted by Base10 @ 5:44 PM