Afghanistan, the Nation that Reagan (amongst other things) Forgot and which Bush is Forgetting -- Taliban? No, Taliback! There are a few things that are clear about Reagan's support of the Mujehedin in Afghanistan, for example, these two contrary facts: 1. It undoubtedly accomplished the Reagan Administration's short-term objectives in keeping the Soviets involved in a quagmire which worked to the benefit of the United States and gravely weakened the Soviet regime. To that extent it was a far greater blow to the Soviets than Vietnam was to us. BUT, 2. After the departure of the Soviets, the Reagan Administration pretty much abandoned the mujehedin to take care of Afghanistan themselves and the United States, having helped get rid of the Soviets in Kabul, lost interest. This meant there was a large, heavily armed, force of Islamic Fundementalists in a nation ravaged by years and years of civil war. Thus Reagan's support of the Mujahedin was also ultimately a far greater strategic blow to the United States than Vietnam was. And following in the "wake" of the Gipper, Commander Codpiece has once again, while not completely abandoning Afghanistan, fallen far short on what he needed to do and what we promised to do. In fact, Bush has pretty much taken the Soviets Act in Afghanistan and occupied Kabul to keep his puppet regime afloat, while ignoring much of the countryside. This retreat in Afghanistan is not surprisingly revealing itself to be a failure. Bush cut back in Afghanistan to get ready for his Iraqi faith-based war and now those folks we did not finish off when we had the chance are coming back. Here's the latest example:

Taliban Suspected in Killing of 11 Chinese Workers KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 10 - The massacre of 11 Chinese road construction workers and an Afghan guard as they slept in their tents early Thursday was the deadliest against foreigners since the fall of the Taliban and dealt a setback to United States efforts to stabilize the country ahead of elections scheduled for September. The men were among more than 100 Chinese engineers and construction workers who had recently arrived in Afghanistan to work on a World Bank project to rebuild a road running north from Kabul to the Tajikistan border. Some of those killed Thursday had been in Afghanistan only a few days, the Chinese news agency reported. The attack occurred at 1:30 a.m. about 20 miles south of Kunduz, in the normally peaceful northern part of the county, Afghan officials said. A group of some 20 gunmen in cars attacked the men as they slept, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Lutfullah Mashal, said.

Yet another miserable failure.