Another victory like that and we're done for

Foreign Policy has published its 2011 index of failed states, as defined by a number of benchmarks including human rights, number of refugees, abuses by the security apparatus, etc. Here are the top 10:

1 Somalia 113.4
2 Chad 110.3
3 Sudan 108.7
4 Dem. Rep. of Congo 108.2
5 Haiti 108.0
6 Zimbabwe 107.9
7 Afghanistan 107.5
8 Central African Republic 105.0
9 Iraq 104.8
10 Ivory Coast 102.8

Western troops have been in Iraq for eight years and the Afghan war has dragged on for a decade. The people they were sent to fight were, by any reasonable standards, bad guys.* And yet:

"And everybody praised the Duke
Who this great fight did win."
"But what good came of it at last?"
Quoth little Peterkin.
"Why, that I cannot tell," said he,
"But 'twas a famous victory."

* some of them are still around, only they're now, apparently, people we can do business with.

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