| | Weblog special: collapse of the Taliban |
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December 7 2001: Anti-Taliban forces have negotiated the surrender of the regime's final stonghold, Kandahar. We select the best analysis from around the world wide web.
Special report: war in Afghanistan
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Surrender
The Economist weighs in with an upbeat assessment of the US strategy in Afghanistan. "Even if the fall of Kandahar does not mean the end of the war, it does enable Mr Karzai to go to Kabul with large-scale Taliban
resistance to his interim regime crushed, and with Afghanistan
enjoying at least a chance of peace..."
The Economist
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The Taliban surrender the final stronghold of Kandahar
NPR's Morning Edition reports from Quetta in Pakistan on the fall of Kandahar. "It appears to be the end of the regime that imposed strict Islamic rule on Afghanistan for five years." (Real Audio)
National Public Radio
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| | Afghanistan after the Taliban |
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Welcome to Kabul
After attending a reception at the British embassy in Kabul, a reporter for the New York Times asks when the Americans plan to send in the diplomats, rather than just the marines.
New York Times (registration required)
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Economic reconstruction of Afghanistan
How much does it cost to rebuild a country after twenty years of civil war? At least $20bn, says Dawn.
Dawn
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Tasting freedom
The International Herald Tribune interviews ordinary Afghans in Kabul for whom freedom from the Taliban means the chance just to live. 'We just died in this country,' says one 21-year-old. 'If you look at my face, I look 35 or 40. Since the Taliban took over, we haven't understood the pleasure of life.'
International Herald Tribune
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The return of music
'When music is banned the very soul of a culture is being strangled,' writes Marie Korpe, executive director of Freemuse - a group campaigning for the freedom of musical expression. She introduces this John Baily essay on music in Afghanistan - which reports on the burning of audio equipment under the Taliban, and examines the role of music in traditional Afghan life.
Freemuse
Adobe
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The first reporters
The BBC's John Simpson has been much mocked for his role in 'liberating' Kabul, but his report on what he saw as the first reporters entered the city is still worth reading. 'It felt extraordinarily exhilarating,' he says, 'to be liberating a city which had suffered so much under a cruel and stifling regime.'
BBC
14.11.2001: Simpson of Kabul
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Time for a broad-based government
Pakistan's Dawn newspaper has one of many international editorials calling for a broad-based government to be installed as quickly as possible. 'It is time the US-led world coalition acted with speed to avert what could turn out to be a recipe for disaster,' it says. 'A government which enjoys the support of all of Afghanistan's ethnic communities, can alone come up to the international community's expectations.'
Dawn
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Send in the UN
But today's Bangladesh Independent says the idea of a new government in Kabul appears at the moment to be 'far-fetched'. Before that, it says, there must be stability: 'and this is where the issue of the United Nations playing a leading role in reshaping Afghanistan, as mooted by Britain's Tony Blair, enters the picture.'
Bangladesh Independent
Send in the United Nations to prevent anarchy - Independent (UK)
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Send in the British
The Times says it would take too long to organise a UN force, and backs the rapid deployment of British troops in Afghanistan. 'The danger is not of a political vacuum, but of fights erupting between rival warlords ... it plainly makes no sense to wait for the five months it could take the UN to field a peacekeeping force.'
Times
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Stop your liberal imperialism
This week's News Statesman has a timely analysis on western imperialism, written before the fall of Kabul, by Oxford academic Maria Misra. She uses the history of the British in India to argue that imposing western values has led to failure in the past: 'The insistence of our armchair imperialists that "democracy" is western and that it will have to be imposed by force is more likely to set off another cycle of resentment and extremism.'
New Statesman
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War works
'Sometimes, war works,' says Anatole Katelsky in the Times, in his defence of the US-led military action in Afghanistan so far.
Times
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A proxy army
Mick Hume, writing in the Times the day before Kabul fell, criticises the way America has 'adopted the dodgy mojahedin as a proxy army. 'The untrained eye,' he says, 'is left with the impression that the west does not want to fight, even in a war that our leaders describe as a defence of civilisation.'
Times
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