About four years ago, I wrote a piece for a college paper about how, after the Afghanistan invasion, media reports on the country simply dropped off (unfortunately, it never made it to the paper’s Web site). The run-up to the Iraq war, and then the war itself, further overshadowed the issue.

In the years since it’s become clear that public scrutiny, between 9/11 and the 2003 Iraq invasion, would have been a good way to evaluate the nation-building process. Even as the media endlessly harps on anything remotely negative in Iraq, however, coverage of Afghanistan has still been non-existent.

Finally, though, the AP has taken note of a report about the situation in Osama’s old stamping ground:

“Insurgent activity in Afghanistan has risen fourfold this year, and militants now launch more than 600 attacks a month, a rising wave of violence that has resulted in 3,700 deaths in 2006, a bleak new report found.

“Afghanistan saw about 130 insurgent attacks a month last year, said the report by the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board, which consists of representatives from Afghanistan and the international community, including the United Nations.

“The new report said insurgents were launching more than 600 attacks a month as of the end of September, up from 300 a month at the end of March this year. The violence has killed more than 3,700 people this year, it said.”

Not surprisingly, one problem area is along the border with Pakistan. In fact, Pakistan has become one of the biggest hotspots for terrorists.

Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com.