No reason to give up

Globe and Mail:

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... a dozen interviews with key players in Kandahar, including the provincial governor and two of President Hamid Karzai's brothers, suggest that the people who are the most intimately involved in building Afghanistan are vastly more optimistic than observers abroad. A positive outlook is a job requirement for many of these people, as they have staked their careers, or their survival, on the effectiveness of foreign intervention.

Their arguments in favour of the Afghan project, however, are also rooted in a broader understanding of the historical context of Canada's struggles in Kandahar, and the significance of the fight for the country's south. They listed the mistakes of 2006, and the dangers of the coming years, and all of them reached the same conclusion: success is possible.

There is less unanimity in Kandahar at large about whether there will be success. Afghans and foreign workers often say they're cynical about whether the international commitment will last, about whether the wealthy countries will have the stomach to spend the blood and money necessary to get Afghanistan working again.

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This is part of a long and interesting article about the Canadian experience in Afghanistan. The Afghans also hit on the key to success--a long term commitment to stay and deny terrorism a home there.