The frustration that it is not getting full backing reflects international hesitancy towards the Northern Alliance, from the US and its western allies to neighbouring states such as Pakistan, Iran and Tajikistan. There are concerns that it includes few Pashtuns, Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, and does not command broad support in the country. Any new Afghan administration that succeeds the Taliban would face an enormous political challenge in attempting to overcome bitter differences in what remains a feudal society of competing local warlords. A new government combined with the international community would also have to cope with the huge economic challenge of constructing, let alone reconstructing, a poverty-stricken country in which little seems to have changed for centuries. There is no piped water, electricity or telephones.
Food is basic, with very limited goods available in the market.
There is dirt everywhere. But the single clearest message they have is that they are tired of a quarter-century of conflict. And they are tired of poverty. Let peace come soon. Copyright 2001 Clear Channel Communications.