Stardate 20011009.0547 (On Screen): "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Unfortunately, it isn't always true. Sometimes in a circumstance like that you may cooperate, but your interests may not be congruent and the cooperation could fall apart at any time. And there can be ongoing tension.
The Afghan Northern Alliance is happy (ecstatic, even) that the US and UK are bombing the Taliban. But so far the bombing has been concentrated on eliminating Taliban air power and anti-aircraft capabilities, especially radars and control centers. This is SOP for Americans in a war during the last fifty years; we always try to attain air supremacy before doing anything else. But that, as such, is of little use to the Northern Alliance, who had visions of their forces on the ground being supported directly by US air strikes against Taliban forces. It's not completely clear that this will happen. "Support for the Northern Alliance" has been one of the stated goals of this air campaign, at least publicly. But it's not that simple.
The problem is that Pakistan, an essential part of our effort, strongly dislikes the Northern Alliance and doesn't want it in power in Afghanistan. Further, the Northern "Alliance" isn't really much of an alliance; they've banded together for the moment, but before the rise of the Taliban they used to fight each other. If the Taliban are defeated, there's good reason to believe that they will start fighting each other again. So the US doesn't necessarily want to hand the country to them instantly; a more controlled transition is in our best interests. Their interest in the defeat of the Taliban is congruent with ours, but there is little else we have in common. We are not on their side, we're on our own side. (discuss)
