Security, including a cash-for-guns program, was vital, Brown said.

"One has to de-mine and re-establish a police force and judicial system, and collect weapons. We need a cash-for-guns program, like we had in Mali, Albania and Sierra Leone."

Say what? Have we forgotten the lesson of Flight 93 so soon? Security doesn't come from disarming; it comes from the willingness and ability to fight back. The most recent effort to disarm Afghanistan was imposed by the Taliban itself in order to prevent those it ruled from having the ability to save themselves from Taliban brutality. Now the remnants of the Taliban will move into the hills and will probably resort to banditry to support themselves; the only defense will be the fact that everywhere they go, everyone they try to attack, will have the will and ability to fight back. The last thing that Afghanistan needs now is a "guns for cash" program. Aid? Yes. Disarmament? Hell no! (discuss)

Former Ambassador Zaeef says that even with this collapse, that the Taliban will continue to exist, will bide their time, and will rise again. "In every village, mosque, home and province there is a Talib." The great abolitionist Frederick Douglass said in the 19th century, "The price of Liberty is eternal vigilance." I don't believe that the Afghan people will believe the good wishes of the Taliban again. But they'll need more than their own good wishes to keep the Taliban from rising again.