The war in Afghanistan continues, with the American-backed Northern Alliance now controlling most of the country, driving Taliban forces to the southern areas of the country. War is such a strong word. Technically correct, but it doesn't reflect our commitment to the effort. Not to disparage the work of our troops, but all we're doing is supporting the efforts of the Northern Alliance. We have some Special Forces on the ground and lots of air support. They're doing most of the land fighting. And that's the way it should be. We don't need to use our army if someone else is willing to fight for us.

Now, the Northern Alliance are not a bunch of good guys with white hats riding in to free an oppressed people. There's a minority who support the Taliban, another minority who support the Alliance, and a majority who don't really care. And the Alliance, being composed of indigenous people, will seem to our culture to be just as bad as the Taliban. It's a matter of what you think is important. I'm sure that the two groups are worlds apart and that Afghanistani see those differences. To people in the US though, they're pretty much the same. It's all a matter of who we're allied with at the moment.

Again, that's the way it should be. Culture is ingrained into each person over a period of decades. You can't expect people to study another culture for a few years and learn all the nuances that a native knows. You'll never see totally eye to eye with someone from another country. Heck, it's hard enough to understand people in your own country. And speaking of countries, don't treat like a person. Countries don't have moralities or a real sense of right and wrong. They do what they believe is best for them, much like any big business. In particular, you can't trust any other country, no matter how close the current relationship is. We have very close ties with Canada an England, but when it gets right down to it, those governments are beholden to their citizens, not ours.

So to me, backing the Northern Alliance is no big deal. Just like backing Iran or Iraq or any of the many "questionable" governments and factions that we've backed. It's all about furthering US interests. If it means allying with oppressive governments, then so be it (though the other side of that coin is that you can best change a government/country/people by making close ties with them and letting your cultural mores infuse them -- it works best when you have a culture that is quite infectious). Hey, if a year from know the Northern Alliance decides that we're an evil empire, that's fine with me.

What it boils down to is this: The Taliban harbored a terrorist that struck at US targets. For that we're going to take down that government and let someone else try their hand at running Afghanistan. If you can't get to Osama bin Laden or other terrorists this is the best way to do it. Send a message saying "harbor enemies of the US and we'll tear down your government." Doesn't matter what we replace it with, as long as the new government takes that lesson to heart ("whatever we do, DON'T TICK OFF THE U.S.!").

It's nice of the Russians to care enough to warn us about Afghanistan. "Don't repeat our mistakes." We're not. We're not using US troops in a ground war. We're pitting one side against the other. We're not staying. Yeah, invading and occupying a foreign country is tough. But we're not doing that. You might say that we learned from the Russian mistake, but that's more or less the way the US does things. We don't invade to take territory. At best we've taken territory from enemies who we've defeated, but in most of those cases we've let those people remain fairly independent or form their own countries.

That's a difference of philosophies. Russia wanted Afghanistan for their own sense of security or whatever -- I have no idea why they invaded other than maybe they wanted the practice. The US doesn't have any hostile borders. We don't have that sense that we need to take and control territory to ensure the security of the country. We haven't forcibly taken territory to add it to our country like Russia did. Well, we took the Indian lands but we had the good sense to pretty much wipe them out. Russia has conquered and that brings with it the problem of people who want to be free (e.g. Chechnya). It's not a mistake to invade Afghanistan. Not with the way we're doing it and with our limited objectives.