I was speaking with an American soldier that just returned from active duty in Afghanistan, his comment was that it is as bad there as it is in Iraq . The only difference is that they are no longer the sexy war story. As he put it, "Soldiers die every day in Afghanistan, too. If people are still carrying guns in church on an air force installation, you know you're in a bad place."

It's sad that the mainstream media has such a short attention span. Not only because of things like what you mention, but other things as well; like the fact that in Afghanistan, German, French and Turkish soldiers are bearing a big part of the burden, proving that cooperation in this matters is not by any means a thing of the past and that a lot of the rethoric between the US and "old europe" is just that: empty rethoric.