Sarcasm aside, of course a US-bolstered democratic state in Afghanistan will be an improvement on the Taleban. But firstly, the Afghans remember that the Taleban themselves were not a force in Afghanistan until they were bolstered, funded, and armed by the US as a scorched-earth policy against Communist annexation of Afghanistan -- and secondly, the history of US adventurism and bait-and-switch regime meddling in the Middle-East will not be filling Afghans with confidence in the US' commitment to the long-term infrastructure support needed now to weld a proper country from an uneasy coalition of overarmed ex-warlords. In particular, the Afghans must be fearing -- as the world fears -- that Afghanistan will be left to the wolves again once it all kicks off in Iraq.

Good sarcasm. I'd tend to think of the approach as "bait-and-forget" in a lot of cases, though.
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Jim


'Tis the exceptional fellow who lies awake at night thinking of his successes.