Afghanistan: Still dangerous

Understanding that President Bush is unlikely to point out what's going wrong in Afghanistan, we're compelled to point out that the country is still a dangerous, precarious place to be. In his State of the Union speech, Bush described Afghanistan as a country that had emerged, "from the tyranny of the Taliban"; a place "where boys and girls are going to school, new roads and hospitals are being built and people are looking to the future with new hope." If only.

The Associated Press reports that of Afghanistan's 9,400 schools, only 40 percent are in buildings, and that most classes are held outdoors or in tents. Worse yet, teachers and students alike are targets of increasing Taliban attacks, with 300,000 children missing school out of fear. How are we taking care of this? The Financial Times reports that we're helping build fundamentalist madrassas, schools that serve as spawning grounds for Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

The AP also reports that a new assessment warns that Afghanistan is on the verge of being a failed state, and that insufficient military and economic resources have jeopardized progress in the country.

Afghanistan is now "under serious threat from resurgent violence, weakening international resolve, mounting regional challenges and a growing lack of confidence on the part of the Afghan people about the future direction of their country."

We urge Congress and the American public to resist the urge to file the troubles in Afghanistan under the "Done" column for the Bush administration, and, indeed the next president.