​Good news for a change in Afghanistan

Maybe I'm just so used to the bad news lately that I'm making more of this than I should, but wasn't that a little good news last week from, of all places, Afghanistan?

I am serious! I read in the paper that Ashraf Ghani was sworn in as the new Afghan president, and get this: before the ceremony was done, he appointed Abdullah Abdullah -- his chief rival in the recent election -- to become the government's chief executive officer.

That's taken as a strong signal he intends to give the political opposition a real role in governing the country -- exactly what we had hoped for, but never got, in Iraq.

And unless I read this part wrong (and let's not say it too loud), this may be the result of U.S. diplomats who helped the two sides negotiate the power-sharing agreement after a long and bitter election process. So, a little shout-out here to that beleaguered American crew.

And here's the part I'm still not sure I believe but appears to be so: The Afghans are also signing an agreement that allows us to keep a small force of U.S. military people in the country as we draw down our forces -- that's the kind of arrangement, critics say, we should have insisted on before we left Iraq. [And had we had such a thing, maybe the country would not be in the state it is.]

No one believes Afghanistan is anywhere near where it needs to be -- corruption is rampant, the economy is a mess and terrorism is still a deadly force. But folded into the other events of last week, that's some progress.