That's a very challenging question. The good news is that we are not trying to build a government where none has ever existed. There had been a government in Afghanistan for a long period, up to the Communist takeover in 1978, in which multi-ethnic forces within the country did cooperate. The Pashtuns were dominant, but it worked reasonably well. I think it's possible to go back to that.
But today we are in a super-heated, super-radicalized environment in which almost all the infrastructure has been destroyed, so it's going to be a very, very long task. If you can hand out money to farmers not to grow poppies, they will not grow poppies, but this essentially ties you to giving out money forever. As I told you, when I was in Afghanistan nearly 30 years ago, I was told about the 30-year effort up to then in trying to stop the poppy crop. So I'm not very sanguine about the possibility of change here.
You are right. Much of the country in Afghanistan is somewhat at peace, although terrorism is spreading in those areas as well, in efforts to radicalize and polarize the situation. I don't want to be universally black about it. I'm sure your ambassador will be able to point to many gratifying and successful missions that are taking place. It's just that from the strategic position of the long term, I think these are not going to bring enough change that we can then walk away from Afghanistan and say the mission is accomplished, the infrastructure has been established, and now it can work on its own in creating a government that the west would like to have.
I think we'll be lucky if we can get away with a government that is not incredibly brutal, that does not support terrorism, and that's run by Afghans, not by foreigners. I think that's doable.