The Taliban regime has hastily retreated from the Afghan capital Kabul, which has now been taken over by the Northern Alliance. Kabul's residents have taken to the streets, celebrating the takeover by shaving off their beards and openly listening to loud music. The conquest of Kabul was an important phase in the US-Afghan war, but the sudden victory has caught the US government by surprise and aroused concern in the international community.
The US objective in this war is to get Osama bin Laden, destroy his al-Qaeda terrorist network and bring down the Taliban regime. However, the Taliban's main stronghold lies not in Kabul, but in the southern city of Kandahar. The fall of Kabul is psychologically significant, but it is by no means a lethal blow to the Taliban.
The Northern Alliance is the US' proxy in the Afghan war. Hoping to avoid a power vacuum and to prevent the Northern Alliance from monopolizing power, the US had tried to persuade them to surround -- but not enter -- Kabul. However, the Northern Alliance ultimately ignored US demands and took the city before the international community could come up with a transitional arrangement.
In taking over the city, the Northern Alliance clearly wants to grab a strategic stronghold and seize the city's assets. It also wants to ensure a strong role for itself in a post-Taliban government. Though a US ally in this war, the Northern Alliance has a dismal human rights record that has UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson worrying about a possible retaliatory massacre.
The most urgent task for the international community now is to set up and dispatch a peacekeeping force -- under UN auspices and consisting of troops from Muslim countries -- to maintain peace in Kabul and to ensure that ethnic conflicts and retaliatory killings do not flare up. The peacekeepers will have to be stationed there until a transitional Afghan government can take over the task of maintaining law and order.
The fall of Kabul is a reminder to the international community that a speedy arrangement is needed for a transitional council representing all of Afghanistan's various ethnic groups and religious persuasions. The transitional council should be responsible for maintaining law and order, rebuilding basic infrastructure and organizing free elections for a democratic government. After a government is established, the council can turn over power to the government.
Bin Laden and the Taliban -- not the Afghan people -- are the targets of this war. To minimize the deaths of innocents and the after-affects of war, the international community should also increase humanitarian aid to the country. Medicine and food are the most urgent needs at the moment. To facilitate speedy reconstruction, the UN should also send a team of experts to provide assistance and guidance.
The purpose of war is to terminate the cause of war, not to plant the seeds of a new war. The Taliban has used religious dogma to brainwash and shackle its people. This has been a major reason behind the conflict between the Taliban and Western civilization. After the Taliban, what Afghanistan needs is a tolerant Muslim society, both in cultural and religious aspects. Modern education and a free media play important roles in building such a society -- a most fundamental and important task in nipping terrorism in the bud.
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