It's been a while since we've checked in on the amazing success story that is post-invasion Afghanistan. How are things?

A new Afghan law makes it legal for men to rape their wives, human rights groups and some Afghan lawmakers said Thursday, accusing President Hamid Karzai of signing the legislation to bolster his re-election prospects.

"As long as the husband is not traveling, he has the right to have sexual intercourse with his wife every fourth night," Article 132 of the law says. "Unless the wife is ill or has any kind of illness that intercourse could aggravate, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband."

Right then.

"Critics assail Afghan law that 'legalizes rape'", Associated Press. (backup) Via Deus Ex Malcontent NSFW</a>.

So surely Afghanistan is doing great these days, since we invaded and spread all that freedom around. Oops, a student journalist who "distribut[ed] a report that is critical of the oppressive treatment of women in some Islamic societies," was sentenced to death. Not to worry, it's been commuted to 20 years in prison. This is sickening.

Maybe, just maybe, if we hadn't been distracted with an unnecessary invasion of Iraq, we would have been able to focus on helping Afghanistan build a modern government and judicial system not based on religion.

In a worrying move US military forces in Afghanistan forcibly deleted video and photographs of the aftermath of a suicide bombing and shooting. "[Col. Victor Petrenko] added that photographs or video taken by 'untrained people' might 'capture visual details that are not as they originally were.'" The free press is too important to sacrifice for such nonsensical concerns. Preemptingly censoring the journalists is a dangerous precedent.

Relatedly, the executive branch is calling for a case against AT&T to be thrown out of court because it endangers national security. Given that the entire case is about the legality of the government's actions, this is pretty low. It amounts to nothing less than a demand that the executive branch's actions be immune to investigation and accountability. Depressing, but unsurprising from the Bush administration.

"There have been 41 Afghan suicide bombings in the past nine months, compared with five in the preceding five years."

"According to United Nations officials, not a day passes without a school being burnt down or a teacher being murdered, often in front of schoolchildren."

"The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that Afghanistan earned $2.8 billion from opium production last year more than it received in aid."

Well, right then.

So, how's Afghanistan doing, now that it's all liberated and free and stuff?

"The judge presiding over the prosecution of an Afghan man [Abdul Rahman] facing death for converting from Islam to Christianity said Thursday that he would resist any interference, despite mounting international condemnation."

Well, glad to know that whole religious freedom thing is working out so well for them. Given how well Bush's first nation building exercise has turned out, I'm really looking forward to seeing how Iraq turns out. Iraq's constitution, like Afghanistan's, places a strong emphasis on Islamic law.

*sigh*

Apparently the man in question been released, which is good, but that this was considered a reasonable option in the first place means something is deeply wrong.

(The article points out that the man in question may be a deadbeat dad and generally a bum, not that's not relevant. He wasn't charged with "failure to pay child support" or even "being a useless waste of flesh", he was charged with conversion to Christianity.)