SOMETIMES lofty dreams lead to catastrophe.

In Cambodia, three decades ago, or 1979 to be exact, Pol Pot planted a giant stake in the ground. Starting from zero, he and his Khmer Rouge colleagues buried the corrupt and rotten past. They planned to build a new prosperous and just society with the peasants free from all forms of exploitation.

In Afghanistan in 1996, Kabul fell to the Taleban. They ruled only according to one model: freedom from t