Word: mujahedeen
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...into separate zones for each of its component ethnic militia that march separately but fight together. In the south, the Taliban appear to have been driven out of their last urban strongholds in Kandahar and Jalalabad, headed, no doubt, for the hills where they'll hope to reprise the mujahedeen guerrilla tradition. But reports suggest much of the post-Taliban south is now being carved up among various local Pashtun commanders. Fighters loyal to Arif Khan, a local tribal leader, are said to hold Kandahar's airport. One Yunus Khalis has claimed Jalalabad and the Pakistani border town of Torkham...
...This is not the first time the U.S. has helped Afghan warlords overthrow a despotic usurper. But, like Washington's support for the anti-Soviet mujahedeen during the 1980s, this is not a mercy mission. Back then, supporting the mujahedeen was simply a way of weakening America's Cold War enemy; the purpose of the current war is to destroy the anti-American terrorist infrastructure that had taken root in Afghanistan. This time, however, the U.S. would do well to avoid simply walking away from Afghanistan, as tempting as that option may become once Al Qaeda's infrastructure there...
...possibility that can easily be dismissed. The Taliban learned their lessons in strategy and tactics from the mujahedeen, who learned from the CIA. They're extremely sophisticated, infinitely more so than the Northern Alliance. So there is a little disquiet over the fact that an advance expected to be so bloody has proved to be a little too easy...
...anti-Taliban confab this week suggested the bombing campaign had actually drawn many Pashtun groups towards the Taliban, which has reportedly begun distributing weapons to Pashtun civilians in order to widen the fight against the U.S. and the Northern Alliance. The reported capture and execution of legendary mujahedeen commander Abdul Haq by the Taliban on Friday deals a blow to efforts to forge an anti-Taliban coalition in the movement's own heartland. Opposition leaders remain confident that much of the Taliban will abandon their leaders once serious fighting begins, but the tide has clearly not yet turned...
...Kabul, of course, having apparently tapped Turkey for the job. And that appears to have created intense interest there in the political infighting among the Taliban's would-be successors. Ankara's Turkish Daily News carries a lively account of the sit-down in Pakistan among mostly Pashtun mujahedeen leaders hoping to forge a "southern alliance" against the Taliban (and the Northern Alliance, whom many Pashtuns distrust). The delegates urged the U.S. to halt its bombing campaign on the grounds that this was supposedly consolidating Pashtun support for the Taliban. They'd prefer to bring down the Taliban by coaxing...