Not everyone would agree. In fact, around the anniversary of the October 7, 2001 U.S. invasion and Afghanistan's October 9 presidential election, many human rights and women's rights organizations are decrying the reality on the ground for Afghan women, children and men.
The United States has "failed, misguided and betrayed Afghan women by giving them false hope," T. Kumar, Amnesty International's Advocacy Director for Asia and the Pacific, stated last month. Pointing out that Afghan women's rights were not a concern for the U.S. government before the September 2001 terrorist attacks, Kumar added that he believed the Bush administration "used the Afghan women" to justify military action.
A recent report from Human Rights Watch, based on interviews with hundreds of Afghan citizens, warns: "Throughout the country, militarized political factions - militias and remnants of past Afghan military forces who came into power in the wake of the Taliban's defeat - continue to cement their hold on political power at the local level, using force, threats, and corruption to stifle more legitimate political activity and dominate the election process."
The same report challenges George Bush's claims of success, voiced during the first presidential debate: "Ten million [Afghan] citizens have registered to vote. It's a phenomenal statistic. They're given a chance to be free, and they will show up at the polls. Forty-one percent of those 10 million are women."
Human Rights Watch counters: "Pronouncements by Afghan and international officials boasting that 40 percent of registered voters are women ignores the likelihood that tens of thousands of women have been registered more than once (some believing their voting card would entitle them to benefits or food rations), and masks regional variation in the figures, including data from some southern provinces showing that less than 10 percent of those registered are women."
Of course, decades of war have left Afghanistan devastated. Any progress rebuilding infrastructure, improving health services, providing education, establishing security and strengthening basic rights and the rule of law is much needed - but will likely seem inadequate, compared to long-term goals.
The question is not how far Afghanistan is from those goals, but whether America is meeting its moral responsibility, as Secretary Thompson suggests.
Over the past two years, United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi saw the Afghan warlords' power grow and repeatedly asked the United States to support expanding the international peacekeeping force. "We were told there were no troops, but then they found 150,000 troops for Iraq," he commented upon leaving his post.
The Feminist Majority Foundation, which started advocating for Afghan women's rights when the Taliban took power in 1996, is concerned that U.S. reconstruction and humanitarian aid for Afghanistan is decreasing. Less than one percent of U.S. aid has gone to women's programs - an inexcusable shortfall, since Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal and child mortality rates in the world.
That is not meeting our responsibility - and, Mr. Bush, that is not success.
Diane Farsetta is a founding member of Madison Women for Peace: a Code Pink Affiliate. More information can be found on the group's website, www.madwomen.org.