The Glories of US Instituted Freedom

So I´ve been reading CNN to keep abreast of the London attacks, and today I came across this doosy of an article:

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- Suspected Taliban gunmen ambushed a border patrol in the desert near the frontier with Pakistan, killing and beheading 10 Afghan soldiers, a provincial governor said Sunday.

Violence elsewhere left 15 rebels and soldiers dead.

The 25-member patrol was attacked Saturday in southern Helmand province by militants driving four four-wheel-drive pickups, said provincial Gov. Sher Mohammed Aghunzada.
The insurgents killed 10 soldiers, and 15 -- including three who were wounded -- fled the ambush, Aghunzada said.

"The Taliban cut the heads off all the soldiers who were killed," he said. Aghunzada said the dead soldiers' bodies had been recovered.

He said the assailants launched the assault after driving across the border from Pakistan and returned across the frontier. The border is unguarded in that remote area.

Twelve other Afghan soldiers were killed Sunday when a land mine blew up under their vehicle in Paktika province, also near the border with Pakistan, provincial deputy police chief Ghulam Nabi said.

He said it wasn't clear if the mine was one of hundreds of thousands of old mines left over from a quarter century of fighting, or had been newly planted.

Also on Sunday in fighting in southern Kandahar province, three suspected rebels were killed after attacking a government convoy on the main highway linking the region to the Pakistani border, frontier security chief Gen. Abdul Raziq Khan said.

There have been few beheadings in Afghanistan since the war began to oust the Taliban, and the brutal method of killing captives is seen as more common among Arab militants.

Afghan officials have long accused Pakistan of not doing enough to crack down on militants on its side of the frontier. The officials even say privately they believe some elements of the Pakistani army and intelligence network are helping Taliban and al Qaeda fighters.

Pakistan vehemently denies the charges. Officials boast that they have stationed tens of thousands of troops along the border and arrested more than 700 al Qaeda suspects.

In the capital Sunday, a rocket slammed into the center of Kabul, exploding on a roadside near the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic missions, but there were no casualties and little damage to nearby buildings.

Source: CNN.com, 07/10/05

Oh yeah, the US government and military has done a real good job of restoring order, peace and democracy in Afganistan. I´m sure they´ll do just as good a job with Iraq.