Lyse Doucette, the BBC's Afghanistan analyst, looks at the myriad problems holding back Afghanistan's development five years after the Taliban's overthrowal.
Former Afghan finance minister Ashraf Ghani insists the world's aid agencies simply weren't equipped for state building in an impoverished country emerging from a quarter century of war.
Even Lakhdar Brahimi, who presided over much of this process as the UN's senior envoy, offers a scathing verdict on the performance of the UN and donors.
'Lousy'
"The way we are doing it is really lousy. We are too late, too bureaucratic, and frankly we spend too much money on ourselves rather than developing the skills of Afghans."
Most critically for Mr Brahimi and many others, countries who vowed to "stand by Afghanistan for the long run" didn't send enough troops in 2002 to start rebuilding, including disarmament, across the country.
Only 5,000 soldiers were sent to Kabul while 8,000 US troops concentrated on rooting out remnants of the Taleban and al-Qaeda.
Mr Brahimi speaks of a "great deal of bitterness" that resources were then suddenly found for a war in Iraq.
"In 2002, the warlords and commanders were shaking in their boots fearing they were going to be disarmed or cast aside," recalls Francesc Vendrell, the former UN envoy who is the now the EU's man in Kabul. "Now its much more difficult."
'Police reform is now on top of US military agenda'Five years on, Afghanistan's powerful regional leaders no longer command private armies but in province after province, men with guns now have access to state resources and positions of power.
Huge cracks have been exposed in this state building exercise. including the failure to focus enough attention on rebuilding institutions like the judiciary and police.
"Ten good police are better than 100 corrupt police and 10 corrupt police can do more damage to our success than one Taleban extremist," explains Lt General Karl Eikenberry, the senior US commander.
He has now put police reform at the top of the US military's agenda after years of a German-led effort which concentrated mainly on training.
Government failings also fuel the rise of Taleban and other opposition forces.
President Karzai is often blamed for making poor choices when it comes to appointing provincial governors and police chiefs.