Keepin' us safer

Six years after the invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban is on the rise.

Despite the presence of more than 50,000 U.S. and NATO troops throughout Afghanistan, the Taliban has taken back control of vast rural areas during the past year and now has a foothold just outside Kabul. Kabul has become a scarier, less active place for Westerners and Afghans.

Insurgency-wracked Afghanistan will become a failed state if urgent steps are not taken to tackle a deteriorating security situation and lackluster reconstruction and governance efforts, experts warned in separate reports Wednesday.

In other words, Bush lied in the SOTU. Gee.