"Outside Kabul however most are still in all-enclosing burqas, and women are scared to speak out. "

Our purpose is not to get women to not wear burqas, though we don't want laws requiring that women wear burqas. Some women might be scared, but there is no way this joker could actually know how many women are scared or how scared they are [you can say Americans are scared, but when 9 million Afghans vote with relatively high numbers of women voting, you can't say they are too scared to speak out]. And it is possible for an Afghan wowan to wear a burqa and not be particularly scared. Women and Men have returned to Aghanistan- something like 3 million people. We can make the loose assumption that at least 90% of the women weren't dragged into this country against their will.

The point is anyone who doesn't think Afghanistan has vastly improved is foolish. Though Afghanistan has a lot more improvement to be done. If Aghanistan passes laws which are favorable to investment, then the lack of Afghanistan of wealth with the large potential for growth makes Afghanistan very attractive place to invest in. Sure there are risks- laws later passed unfavorable to investment and trade, and it's possible the money from Heroin could destablize the govt due to corruption [corruption due to the desirablity of investing in Afghanistan could also be a problem]. The US, NATO, and other countries main role is to ensure enough security so that foreign and local investment can happen, additionally international banks [IMF] can lower risks to investors by providing certain guarantees. But there is one thing which is certain: there are limits to the rate of growth- high growth rates add instablity. This is "way" too complicated to be able to "know" what growth rates are sustainable, but as a very round number, growth rates around 20% might be manageable, whereas 100% or more in national growth rate are probably are not managable.

In a short and dirty explanation this is complicated, the more complicated it is [or "made" to be additionally complicated due stupidity or just "typical" political conflicts] the slower the process of economic growth, but even in near optimial conditions you can't turn dirt poor into paradise over nite. And that is just the economic side of this, there are also social and cultural considerations. America simply can not bully it's will upon the Afghanistan people- just like we can't bully our way with the Mexico. But with international pressure we can push this a bit faster [if it's done right].