The Bush administration came to break the rumors of an unsuccessful campaign in Afghanistan on Thursday, when Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher tried to point out the significant changes that the 2001 intervention has done there: “No one can tell me that Afghanistan is not going in the right direction,” he told the Senate Foreign Relation Committee.

According to him, improvement is notable in what once was among the poorest and underdeveloped countries in the world, as better life conditions, such as electricity, cellular phones and schools, qualify Afghanistan as going in the right direction.

Furthermore, Boucher urged for international intervention: “The greatest threat to Afghanistan’s future is abandonment by the international community,” and supported the idea that the mission needs more troops and equipment: “too few of our allies have combat troops fighting the insurgents especially in the south.”

Boucher’s commitment to the Afghanistan mission came after the release of an independent report warning about a failed mission and a forgotten war. “Success is possible but not assured,” he said. “Therefore, the international community needs to continue and expand its efforts.”

At the same time, Indiana Senator Richard Lugar did not deny the success of the Afghanistan mission, but he appeared somewhat unsatisfied with the lack of a clear strategy: “Unless there is some goal out there, some overall plan, this situation is going to be a victim at some point of the politics of this country or others.”

Washington is set to deploy 3,200 marines in Afghanistan this spring, 2,200 of which will join the NATO south regional forces, while 1,000 marines will be deployed for training missions with the Afghan forces. This came as a response to the increasing influence of the Taliban, a widespread corruption and a hard to control narcotics traffic taking over Afghanistan.