> That got a lot of US and UN support, didn't it? I thought the same thing
> myself. The only problem is, there is no Vietnam next to Afghanistan.
The UN cottoned on after, oh, ten years or so, and finally stepped in to supervise elections in the early 1990s. Vietnam paid a hefty price: years of guerilla war with Khmer Rouge splinter groups, plus a Chinese invasion in 1979. But millions of lives were saved.
Given what we know about al-Qaeda -- the NYC trial of the 1993 WTC bombing, by the way, provided a grimly accurate preview of what Bin Laden was up to (http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,551037,00.html) -- I don't see any other option except sending in the blue helmets.
-- Dennis