Afghanistan envoy nomineer: Afghanistan progress is not hopeless

[Enrique]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/progress-in-afghanistan-called-hard-but-not-hopeless/2011/06/08/AGLyFCMH_story.html

(...)

He said that “we have made significant progress, but this progress is still fragile and reversible” and “enormous challenges remain,” including problems with governance, corruption, narcotics, economic development, employment and basic services such as education and health care.

“Failure in some of these areas can mean failure of the state and the creation of an environment in which our strategic enemies can regroup,” Crocker warned. “Making progress on these issues has been hard, and it will go on being hard. But hard does not mean hopeless.”

Crocker noted that, after helping Afghan Islamic fighters force Soviet troops to withdraw in 1989, the United States “walked away from Afghanistan . . . with disastrous consequences.” He added: “We cannot afford to do so again.” He quoted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as vowing, “We will not repeat the mistakes of the past.”

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. We lost. Get out. Get over it.

Do we really have to be like the ex-Soviet Union and go broke fighting a lost war for PR?