Stardate 20010914.1538 (On Screen): This is the latest in a series of articles describing Taliban defiance, but it provides some interesting background. In particular, it describes a credible reason why it is that the Taliban is so reticent to turn bin Ladin over to the US. It turns out that a significant number of the soldiers fighting for the Taliban against its opposition, which holds the NE corner of the country, are fighting because of their strong religous beliefs as much as anything, and if the Taliban weakens ideologically they may cease to support it or may even turn on it. So the public announcements being made by the Taliban are actually for internal consumption. This is completely plausible; it wouldn't be the first time that a nation's foreign policy was being driven by internal politics.
It's also no excuse. I'm not sympathetic. The course of the struggle by the Afghanis against the USSR was changed by the introduction of high tech weapons by the US. The US could, if need be, begin to heavily support the opposition and turn the tide of the war against the Taliban -- and this may indeed be a tactic that the US ends up using. There's a lot the US could provide to the opposition which would seriously change the balance of the struggle. The opposition stronghold borders Tajikistan, and that nation has already granted the US permission to operate from within its borders. Think the opposition could find a use for a hundred thousand mortar shells? (discuss)
