Missions impossible: NATO's Afghan dilemma, -- By Philip Smucker

"By talking so much about democracy and propping up warlords without delivering serious progress, we have managed to discredit a lot of our basic notions in the eyes of the Afghans." --- But Afghans themselves also question how Western governments and their carefully chosen Afghan partners have managed to spend billions of dollars in development assistance with little other than several unsafe highways to show for it. --- Beyond a sputtering economy, however, increasing numbers of Afghans wonder how with nearly 50,000 foreign troops in their country security could have diminished in the past two years. --- "For Afghans, the 'global war on terror' was something for the rest of the world," says Sanjar Qiam, the general manager of a leading national radio station. "For Afghans it was about getting rid of the Taliban and getting rid of the Northern Alliance, but we still have both of them, and they seem to be getting stronger by the day."