Good post MGoH, people tend to forget what Afghanistan was like prior to the PDPA coup of April 1978.

The other thing that people overlook is that since the summer of 2002, for a decade, much of Afghanistan has been relatively "peaceful" compared to the two decades that preceded it. The cities of Kabul, Kandahar, Herat, Jalalabad Mazar-i-Sharif have all been rejuvenated, and foreign investment from such regional partners as Iran, China and India are bringing prosperity to a country that was a "failed state" in every sense of the term.

It should also be remembered that the international community is not going to abandon Afghanistan. The Government is not only being propped up by foreign forces. For every single member of ISAF currently in the country there are four Afghans fighting alongside them to defend their country and guard the Government that the electorate of Afghanistan voted in (Last elections in Afghanistan were held prior to 1973).

I too, having experienced of the country back when, share your hopes for the future of the country.