Jalalabad has fallen to the Northern Alliance!

HOOOORAY!

Boy those guys are kicking some serious butt.

I would like to remind everyone that this is far from over. The former USSR controlled most of the cities but still got repulsed. Afghanistan is perfect terrain for gorilla warfare. The fighting is just heading back into the mountains. Anyone who thinks the Taliban is beat..is believing too much CNN.

I am thinking this is a strategic withdrawal. Nowhere is there mention of mass hysteria and Taliban ranks getting routed. So, I urge caution.

Another thing is this: The Northern Alliance isn't much better then the Taliban. Their former rule was a reign of terror and repression. The Afghan people opened their arms to the Taliban when they first came into power. Now the tables have turned, but I strongly suspect that these same people know the realities of the situation. They would dance in the streets if the Taliban retook the cities. To do no less for both sides means swift and painful death.

The UN would not support them if it were not that they are useful right now. Grave concerns that the Northern Alliance will reform their government, thumbing their noses at the UN. Not what most want to see, but I strongly suspect, will happen in the short term, and quite possibly, in the long term as well.

So I ask you this. Are they as great a victory as you think they are? If the Taliban is not routed, but leave in a strategic withdrawal to tougher terrain...in my eyes...they are empty victories filled with no substance.

Well one of the "leaders" of the taliban threatened the U.S. with retaliation threats. Thats a bit scary.

But the taliban fled Kabul cuz they were getting creamed. A group of about 80 Taliban followers was surrounded and those that didnt surrender were killed immidately. And they were armed too. Northern Aliance kicks butt

I'll place money on the wager that if they get into power, they'll be just as bad or worse.

Didn't something like this happen last time?

Yeah, the US backed the Muhajidiin (which became the Taliban) against the Northern Alliance not too many years ago...

The UN Security Council is setting up a provisional peacekeeping force until a government is in place, to guard against the terminal "power vacuum" that has traditionally been called "politics" in Afghanistan.

same old, same old.