Three years ago, the Bush administration could still claim democracy was taking hold in Afghanistan and that the country was on the road to economic recovery. Today, Afghanistan is dangerously close to sliding back into lawlessness and chaos as more than 50,000 NATO and U.S.-led coalition troops battle an insurgent Taliban movement and a still-robust al Qaeda. A recent spike in civilian deaths -- caused by terrorist suicide bombers and stepped-up air attacks by NATO and allied forces -- also threatens to turn a war-weary population against the Western troops and the shaky, new Afghan government. President Hamid Karzai's authority barely extends beyond Kabul, and the country's only successful economic sector is its burgeoning drug trade. Afghan women have seen their newfound rights shrink as Islamic fundamentalism elbows its way back into the courts and social system. Meanwhile, neighboring Pakistan has been unable or unwilling to prevent the Taliban and al Qaeda from using its mountainous border areas as a safe haven. Some Afghans and international experts believe recovery is still possible -- but they say time is of the essence.

Roland Flamini is a Washington-based correspondent who writes a foreign-affairs column for CQ Weekly. Fluent in six languages, he served as Time magazine's bureau chief in Rome, Bonn, Beirut, Jerusalem and the European Common Market and later served as international editor at United Press International.