EDITORIAL - Kabul’s fall

To the surprise of the international community, forces of the opposition Northern Alliance moved into Kabul Tuesday, taking over the government as the Taliban militia abandoned the Afghan capital. The streets of Kabul erupted in jubilation as five years of the Taliban’s extreme fundamentalist repression ended. Music, banned by the Taliban militia, could be heard once again. Men rushed to barber shops to have their beards shaved; under the Taliban, all men had to wear beards of a certain length.

Women emerged from years of virtual incarceration, gingerly uncovering faces that used to hide behind veils. The Taliban regime banned women from working or going to school and required them to cover themselves from head to foot with clothing. Violators were executed. Even widows were not allowed to find work to feed their families.

All is not well, however, and even the women knew it – many were scared to part immediately with their veils. It will take some effort for the people of Afghanistan to adjust to the ways of peace, and massive assistance from the international community to get the country back on its feet. The Northern Alliance is hardly seen as Afghanistan’s savior, and the international community is pressing the alliance to make way for a broad-based government that can speed up reconstruction of the strife-torn land. Pakistan, a key US ally against the Taliban, is uneasy with the Northern Alliance being ensconced in Kabul.

Also, the fall of Kabul does not mean an end to the Islamist threat. Taliban guerrillas are expected to strike back, at least against the Northern Alliance, and could make the task of reconstruction difficult for any new government in Kabul. Taliban militia retreated to their stronghold in southern Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network is known to have its base. Bin Laden is nowhere to be found. Just last week he gave an interview, threatening to unleash nuclear weapons on the United States and its allies and saying he would rather die than be captured. Given the zealotry shown by his followers, Bin Laden’s words cannot be taken lightly.

Rebuilding from the ashes of war is never easy, and this war looks far from over. Still, kicking the Taliban out of Kabul is a significant victory in the war against terror. For now the people of Afghanistan and the free world have reason to rejoice.