Instability in Afghanistan



The ability of terrorist forces (whether al-Qaida or Gulbuddin Hekmatyar) to set off a huge car bomb explosion in Kabul, killing at least 30 and injuring 50, on the same day that President Hamid Karzai narrowly escaped being assassinated in Kandahar, demonstrates how much remains to be done there.



U.S. preoccupation with Iraq is creating space for the terrorists to destabilize Afghanistan. You don't begin a new job until you finish the old one.



Gulbuddin Hekmatyar continues to be an embarrassing example of blowback. It was the US that funded him with hundreds of millions of dollars, in the fight against the Soviets. The US victory in Afghanistan in 1988-89 looks increasingly pyrrhic.