Finding a way forward

[CHIMO]

Five years ago, the entire world supported the overthrow of the Taliban government in Afghanistan. But after removing that repressive regime, the Americans, who led the effort, went off to do business in Iraq and the Taliban were allowed to regroup.

Now there is a serious resurgence of Taliban activity, security is in a shambles and Afghanistan has once again become the world's No. 1 producer of opium, the basis of heroin. This year, Afghan warlords will produce more than 6,000 tonnes of the stuff.

Prior to the fall of the Taliban, the country had been devastated by a cruel military occupation by the Soviet Union, wracked by civil war, by corruption, by a backward government and then by the American-led and UN-backed attack against the Taliban. Afghanistan became a "failed state" and needed the world's help to rebuild its most basic institutions.

But after more than four years of effort and hundreds of millions of dollars in Western aid, the training of Afghan military and police personnel is proceeding at a snail's pace.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_reed/20060912.html