I did hear on one of the news shows that it would take the UN two years to organize a multi-ethnic governing body for Afghanistan. Two years??? That's a bit long, even by UN standards.

NYDailyNews

What a revolting development. What an insensitive disruption. What an ungrateful crew.

The Northern Alliance has defied its handlers by taking Kabul from the Taliban, and now the heads of state and big-shot diplomats gathered in New York to party at the annual opening of the UN General Assembly must forgo that third or fourth martini and actually get to work.

In case you've missed the hand-wringing — which is understandable, given Monday's horrific jet crash and yesterday's welcome announcement of huge cuts in the nuclear arsenals of Russia and the U.S. — the striped-pants set is beside itself.

They — and this time "they" includes us — told the alliance to hold short of the Afghan capital until a proper post-Taliban regime could be crafted. There was no diplo-speak: no winking, no nodding, no signaling, no use of euphemisms. Hold up, the alliance was told unambiguously.

Which it did until yesterday, when thousands of Taliban soldiers cut and ran.

Then, in the word made famous when that U.S. commander refused the Nazi demand that he surrender Bastogne during World War II, the alliance said "nuts" — or its local language equivalent.

And I say, good for them.

Worries and Fears

For more than a month, the Bush administration, its coalition allies and various TV talking heads have alternately worried about whether the alliance would display the guts necessary to take the war to the Taliban — or move too quickly before a UN peacekeeping force and a new multiethnic government was ready to take power.

Echoing his colleagues — and sources similarly out of touch with what Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon once called the "facts on the ground" — a CNN correspondent in the thick of things yesterday reported "fears among Afghans that the leadership vacuum created by the retreat of the Taliban forces [toward their southern stronghold in Kandahar] could lead to anarchy."

Yet those presumably concerned about "the leadership vacuum" and "anarchy" — the average Afghans who've suffered under the Taliban's repressive dictatorship for the past five years — appear to have greeted the alliance as liberators.

Music is being played — something banned by the Taliban. Men are shaving the long, unruly beards they've been forced to grow, and women are joyously shedding the restrictive, veiled costume the Taliban's mullahs demanded they wear or risk public beatings.

In other words, those in Kabul said to fear "anarchy" and a "leadership vacuum" appear ecstatic to be rid of their oppressors.

This means that the dips at the State Department and their counterparts at the United Nations must now take a few moments from their round-the-clock receptions and get hopping.

All Talk, No Action

For its part, the alliance understands that the time to strike is when you can. Waiting for outside actors to soothe the competing political ambitions of those eager to rule after the Taliban are gone could take God knows how long. The dips have been consulting among themselves for more than a month and so far have absolutely nothing to show for their efforts.

So, armed by the U.S. and Russia, aided by a pulverizing campaign of carpet-bombing and guided by American Special Forces, the alliance seized the moment.

In acting as it has, the alliance appears to know — or at least sense — that it could be sold out in a New York minute. It's taken Kabul because it could, and the dips must now deal with the reality they've created. If that seems arse backward to those far from harm's way, that's just too bad.

One should harbor no illusions about the alliance. They're mostly a collection of drug-dealing thugs. But since they're our thugs — at least for now — perhaps we can mute their desire for revenge and cause them to respect the rights of those who have shown no similar respect for theirs.

It's not the alliance's fault that the war has gotten ahead of the politics. It's doing its job. It's time for the dips to do theirs — the sooner the better — and time also for the U.S. to press its primary war aim: finding and wiping out Osama Bin Laden and his terrorist network.

-- Anonymous, November 14, 2001

Answers

Good article. I was afraid they would attack Kabul prematurely and get wiped out, but they had a good sense of striking while the "iron was hot."

-- Anonymous, November 14, 2001