MEANWHILE...

Taliban militants seized two towns in tumultuous southern Afghanistan, forcing police and government officials to flee, officials said Monday.

... insurgents only were known to have completely seized one town since their hard-line regime was toppled by U.S. forces in 2001.

They were quickly driven out of that town, Chora, in Uruzgan province.

...On Monday, large numbers of militants chased out police after a brief clash in the town of Naway-i-Barakzayi, in Helmand province near the Pakistan border, district police chief Mullah Sharufuddin said.

Scores of Taliban forces overran police holed up Sunday in a compound in the nearby Helmand town of Garmser. The security forces and a handful of government officials fled, a local government official said....

--AP

Oh, but giving a damn about Afghanistan is so four and a half years ago.

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UPDATE: Ah, but a former Army colonel is about to deliver a George Bush rug full of religious (Catholic!) symbolism to the president -- a rug that, we're told, was made by a grateful resident of Kabul, er, four years ago -- and that proves Bush is a great president, doesn't it?

(Via Memeorandum.)