> we should support the effort of Francesco Vendrell and the UN to build a
> new government through the instrumentality of the king and the loya jirga.
.
I agree with this. But at the moment Colin Powell is adamant that getting
rid of the Taliban is not an explicit goal of the campaign. The goals are
(1) to destroy the bin Laden terrorist camps and (2) to make the Taliban
"pay a price" for having harbored them. We've seen those words used before
and they've always ended up meaning the familiar routine: bombs, civilian
destruction, and more chaos.
On the other hand, there seems to be more official support in Washington for Ziad and the loya jerga process than I would have expected. So it's hard to say. This could be another Sudan medicine factory, or it could be a genuine positive intervention. We'll have to see.
Seth