How Bad is Afghanistan?

Not as bad as we seem to think, argues Peter Bergen, who knows a lot about the place. Which is not to say that we shouldn’t be concerned about the current trajectory–and, above all, the possibility that average Afghans won’t consider the Karzai government legitimate, given the flagrant examples of fraud we’ve heard about in recent days. On the other hand, as Bergen points out, compared to the Russians (who were unbelievably brutal) and the Taliban (who were unbelievably oppressive), the Karzai govern is just, well, corrupt. I’m hoping to get back there next month to see how it feels on the ground.