" - - - the US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was holding Afghanistan up as a model for Iraq, in terms of its progress."

"Iraq is several years behind", he said. But people on the ground here - in official Afghan circles, as well as in the myriad different international bodies involved in the rebuilding effort - are far less confident about Afghanistan's "model potential".

The BBC says: Doubts grow over US Afghan strategy

"With no end in sight to the insurgency led by remnants of that regime and insecurity still holding back development in large parts of the country, it is a question that many more people are asking.

"There has been significant political progress, with the election of President Hamid Karzai last year and a new parliament due to convene next month after September's vote.

"But it is almost as if this is happening in a parallel universe, some say. There is no sign of it translating into peace."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

Losing the war on Afghan drugs

"Of course we're growing poppy this year," said the district chief. "The government, the foreigners - they promised us help if we stopped. But where is it?"

And the Taliban - you know, the Taliban from which Bush said the country had been freed - that Taliban.

"As the US military's battle to subdue the Taleban and other rebel groups in Afghanistan moves into its fifth year, one eastern province bordering Pakistan has increasingly become a symbol of its difficulties."

Pretty much everything GWB has touched has turned to manure.

And that would be hard to deny for anyone rooted in reality. With even a toe in the ocean of reality.