Despite all George W. Bush's blather about Afghanistan becoming a democratic wonderland, conditions in that country are bad and getting worse.
According to a story in the Independent, the United Nations has found that Afghanistan's opium crop is flourishing as never before and the country is well on the way to becoming a corrupt narco-state.
How bad is the opium problem?
Opium is now the "main engine of economic growth and the strongest bond among previously quarrelsome peoples", according to the UN. Most of the opium is smuggled across the Pakistan border, where the Taliban and al-Qa'ida charge drug traffickers transit and protection fees.
There's more bad news.
There is growing evidence, however, that despite some improvements, Afghanistan has become a failed state. It is now ranked by the UN as the second worst country in the world to live in - after Sierra Leone.
Mission accomplished? Hardly.