David Brooks has a strange view of Afghanistan

I am not sure where David Brooks gets his information.  According to his column in today’s New York Times,

Third, while many Afghan institutions are now dysfunctional, there is a base on which to build. The Afghan Army is a successful institution.

I am not an expert on Afghanistan.  What I do know is that on election day even though it was quite clear I was an international election observer, soldiers in the Afghan army extorted money from me and my security team, took our weapons, and put us and themselves in grave danger in the process.  If this is an example of a successful institution in Afghanistan, there really isn’t much hope for the country.

Michael Cohen at Democracy Arsenal has more.