Not Entirely Unsexy War Afghan War Blogging - New Media and Politics

July 8 2010 // News

Rachel helps put the current state of affairs in Afghanistan in some perspective. I'm one of those who has a hard time envisioning what success there will look like and yet she manages to make me feel some optimism.

" + __flash__argumentsToXML(arguments,0) + "")); }" s_getcharset="function () { return eval(instance.CallFunction("" + __flash__argumentsToXML(arguments,0) + "")); }" s_getversion="function () { return eval(instance.CallFunction("" + __flash__argumentsToXML(arguments,0) + "")); }" s_getmovieid="function () { return eval(instance.CallFunction("" + __flash__argumentsToXML(arguments,0) + "")); }" s_getpageurl="function () { return eval(instance.CallFunction("" + __flash__argumentsToXML(arguments,0) + "")); }" s_getpagename="function () { return eval(instance.CallFunction("" + __flash__argumentsToXML(arguments,0) + "")); }" s_getaccount="function () { return eval(instance.CallFunction("" + __flash__argumentsToXML(arguments,0) + "")); }" s_gettrackclickmap="function () { return eval(instance.CallFunction("" + __flash__argumentsToXML(arguments,0) + "")); }" s_getdomindex="function () { return eval(instance.CallFunction("" + __flash__argumentsToXML(arguments,0) + "")); }">

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 About the only major issue Rachel doesn't delve into here is the one about Afghan corruption. So intractable a problem that in an attempt to deal with it the US has reduced aid to Afghanistan by $4 billion over concerns it's undermining their efforts. There's a report that corruption has doubled since 2007 - something that report author Lorenzo Delesgues says, "...reduces the legitimacy of the state, it gives more legitimacy to the Taliban."