If you were correct, the President would be free to travel the country with his own Afghan entourage, the Taliban wouldn't control large areas, and something besides opium and marijuana would be cash crops.

However. Hard facts. This seems to reflect the reality of a country which has opium as the largest crop, where the government controls most of the capital and part of Kandahar, and where the President's bodyguard is foreign because his countrymen can't be trusted.

"On the fifth anniversary of the launch of the U.S.-led war against Afghanistan, the Taliban is on the offensive, much of the countryside is in the hands of warlords and opium magnates, U.S. casualties are mounting, and many, if not most, Afghans are actually worse off now than they were before the U.S. invasion.

"UN figures place Afghan living standards as the worst in the world, outside of the poorest five countries of sub-Saharan Africa, with life expectancy of less than 45 years (compared with 70 years in neighboring Iran). The per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is under $200 (compared with $1650 in Iran). Fewer than three Afghans in 10 are literate, and infant mortality is among the highest in the world. The economy is barely functioning, with the country's 24 million people dependent on foreign aid, the opium trade, and remittances from the five million Afghans living abroad."

Arf