posted 11-12-2001 10:15 PM            

quote:

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Taliban forces 'abandon Kabul'

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Reports from Kabul indicate that forces belonging to the ruling Taliban have abandoned the Afghan capital in the face of a series of victories by the opposition Northern Alliance.

According to The Associated Press, as dawn broke over the Afghan capital sporadic small arms fire cold be heard coming from hills overlooking the city, but the streets were empty of the usual patrols by Taliban soldiers.

In recent days the Northern Alliance has succeeded in capturing much of the northern part of Afghanistan.

When the U.S.-led bombing campaign began just over a month ago the Alliance controlled only about five-percent of Afghanistan in the northeast of the country.

At the end of last week, it made its first major breakthrough -- taking the important city of Mazar-e Sharif.

Now their forces are poised to take over Kabul, which appears to be undefended.

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posted 11-12-2001 10:17 PM            

quote:

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COMMENTARY
Watch Your Back With the Taliban Foes

By MANSOOR IJAZ, Mansoor Ijaz, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, proposed the blueprint for the moujahedeen cease-fire in Kashmir last year

Now that the Northern Alliance has captured Mazar-i-Sharif, the U.S.-led military campaign soon will test how much of the effort can be entrusted to its Afghan allies on the ground and how much of it U.S. forces will have to take up themselves.

The willingness of northern Afghan warlords to wage the grueling ground battles needed to smoke Al Qaeda from its caves will test Afghanistan's historical tendencies to shift allegiances without notice.

The Soviets learned this in the 1980s with disastrous results when they got caught between a Northern Alliance, which they believed was their ally, and the Taliban militias in the south. The two sides had made a devil's pact with one another.

Both sides turned against the Soviets.

...

In the scenario considered in secret at the Peshawar session, after U.S. ground troops enter Afghanistan en masse, an Iranian-style political coalition would be announced.

U.S. troops would become bargaining chips--information about their locations on the ground would be traded by the northern warlords in exchange for the new power-sharing arrangement.

Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar (or his designated heir) would be elevated to the status of supreme religious leader, akin to Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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posted 11-12-2001 11:00 PM            

I'd have to believe that the U.S./coalition would have taken that quote Thermit posted into consideration? Bush did say this would take years.... Heard today that U.S. has used up most of surplus bombs left over from Viet Nam in the current Afghanistan campaign.... at least our military is efficient!??? Like Jay Leno says in Doritos commercial, "Go ahead and (eat) 'em, we'll make more!"