This is good. Other than a single roadside bomb in the south that killed two police, Afghans were able to vote in their national election:
There were no reports of more serious attacks on an election that Taliban insurgents had vowed to derail, branding it a U.S.-backed sham, and many voters said they were determined to make their voices heard despite the threats.
Afghanistan is a long way from being a modern state--or even a single state at all--but they don't want to go back to Taliban rule.
UPDATE: Let's not panic about the Afghans being able to defeat the Taliban:
A bigger-than-expected turnout in Afghanistan's presidential election and the Taliban's failure to significantly disrupt the vote has raised questions about the capacity of the insurgents to tip the country back into chaos as foreign troops head home.
The Taliban claimed that they staged more than 1,000 attacks and killed dozens during Saturday's election, which they have branded a U.S.-backed deception of the Afghan people, though security officials said it was a gross exaggeration.
There were dozens of minor roadside bombs, and attacks on polling stations, police and voters during the day. But the overall level of violence was much lower than the Taliban had threatened to unleash on the country.
And, despite the dangers they faced at polling stations, nearly 60 percent of the 12 million people eligible to vote turned out, a measure of the determination for a say in their country's first-ever democratic transfer of power, as President Hamid Karzai prepares to stand down after 12 years in power.
The Taliban conducted a virtual offensive by press release simply claiming they ravaged the countryside.
And the fact that Afghans need some US and NATO help going forward isn't a slam on Afghans or an excuse to bug out too early on the theory that Afghans are doomed to lose to the Taliban.
Maintaining a state and security forces is way more difficult than running around the hills with rifles and planting bombs. Remember, European NATO states needed a lot of our help to take on Libya in 2011.
