If you want to read the last 3/4 of the article that discusses the room for improvement in Afghanistan, you'll have to buy the article from The Economsit. :)
http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displayStory.cfm?subject id=796681&story_id=1524657 So far, yes. Afghanistan is better off than it was a year ago. The country is at peace, by its own standards. Mr Karzai's government has been confirmed by a loyajirga (grand council) until elections in June 2004; it is extending and consolidating its powers. The World Bank broadly applauds its reconstruction strategy and efforts to stimulate the private sector. A new national currency, the afghani, has been successfully introduced. Several cities have a mobile phone system. Major infrastructure projects have started; some, such as the reconstruction of the Salang tunnel linking the north of the country with the south, will be completed in 2003. In public at least, Afghanistan has the support of neighbouring countries; none of them wants to dismember it. Iran and Pakistan, long at loggerheads over what sort of government Afghanistan should have, agreed to let Afghans decide. Pakistan has signed a deal with Turkmenistan and Afghanistan to build a $3.2 billion gas pipeline through Afghanistan. A recent donors' conference in Oslo pledged $1.2 billion in aid to Afghanistan for 2003; Norwegian diplomats hope the realised sum may be closer to $2 billion. Some 3m Afghan children are back in school, double the number the United Nations predicted. The remnants of al-Qaeda and the Taliban hiding in tribal areas along the Pakistani border have fewer friends than they did a year ago. They are scattered and on the run; shipments of weapons destined for them have been regularly intercepted. Most impressive has been the flood of Afghans returning to the country. Afghans formed by far the largest caseload for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In 2002, nearly 2m of them decided to head home, the largest movement of people anywhere since the formation of Bangladesh. _______________________________________________________ John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] "The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity." - George W. Bush 1/29/03 _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
