Afghanistan: Mission Crumbling

Putting aside the other problem of a bumper crop of opium, Afghanistan is falling into the "out of site, out of mind" category as so often happens with US foreign policy. The Taliban has been increasingly aggressive and it sounds as though al Qaeda and the Pakistan military intelligence agency (ISI) has been providing assistance, if not training. Karzai has been limited to the capital and the south of the country, including Karzai's home region, are no-go zones due to violence.

The rumors that Pakistan's military intelligence are involved should not be too much of a surprise in light of the recent polling in Pakistan that showed broad support within the country for suicide attacks such as we saw in London. Between our own quagmire in Iraq, our failure to partner with other world powers in the war on terror (El Salvador and Fiji don't really count) and our muddy relationship with Pakistan, our failure to follow through in Afghanistan might just be coming back to create another major headache.