The current Bush's administration is blameless in the mess left by the Soviet-American face-off in Afghanistan. But cleaning up after that mess should have been attempted long ago.

Walking away from that chaos unfortunately allowed it to fester and generate still more chaos. Now we have WTC, the Pentagon and the airliner that scattered itself across the Pennsylvania countryside. Beyond America's own agony, there is the agony of Aghanistan, which now extends across two decades and many more lives than were taken on 9/11.

It's long past time for *someone* to recognize Afghanistan's troubles, many of which were created with outside help, and to try to do something about them. I am both glad and impressed that the Bush administration is willing to do this. I didn't vote for these people, but they have my full support in their humanitarian endeavors.