BostonHerald: Lessons from Afghanistan: Remember Kabul before striking Iraq

The U.N.-mandated International Security Assistance Force patrols only the Kabul area with some 4,800 troops drawn from 19 nations. Karzai, U.N. Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi and every leading specialist on Afghanistan have called for an expansion of that assistance force. However, the United States insists building an Afghan army is the way to go - despite growing evidence that at the end of the two-year transitional period, Karzai's government will have only about one-third of the forces it needs to provide security.

Americans should take note of the failure to marry rhetoric to funding in Afghanistan. Moreover, in Afghanistan America leads an international coalition composed of dozens of concerned countries willing to share the burden to effect positive change there.

As for Iraq, very few countries have indicated a willingness to share the burden with the United States for what will certainly prove to be a much more expensive commitment.

Afghan is where I point when supporters of the "Iraqi exercise" ask what will happen afterwards.