Here’s One We Invaded Earlier

This is an eye-opening account of what Afghanistan is like today. The nominal US-installed ruler, Karzai, is a prisoner within Kabul, kept alive by massive US military protection, and doesn’t dare leave the capital. Warlords run most of the counry, raising their own taxes, manufacturing heroin to beat the band, and their forces outnumber the “central” government’s armies by orders of magnitude. In the south of the country, the Pashtun ethnic clans resist the central government while the Taliban are busy issuing fatwas with impunity and assassinating aid workers and rival factions. The peacekeeping forces within Afghanistan amount to one-hundreth those allocated to clean up the Balkans mess while the total development aid pledged so far to Afghanistan amounts to $5 billion, an inconsequential sum when placed against the estimated $20 billion required just to restore the country to its pre-1979 levels.

Earlier here.