Who is the Northern Alliance?

i. i don't know ii. i suspect the latter (which brings up question iii but that may be another thread)

They are likely another Taliban in the making.

A bunch of fuck-ups. But now they're our fuck-ups! Great.

There were thirteen groups, of different ethnicities and such, who banded together as the U.S. sponsored "freedom fighters" in the 80s. The Taliban were (and are) the most extreme religious segment. The NA represents, I think, a few of the other groups, who comprise only a 10% ethnic representation of the Afghani population. Religiously, they're somewhat more mild [which doesn't say much, tho, b/c compared to the Taliban, so was the inquisition.]

Big problem is that Afghanistan has always been split along ethnic lines. Taliban come from majority group (Pashtuns) who have almost always been in charge of the country. Northern Alliance are mainly Tajiks. Read the article I keep posting. Everyone agrees that a 'broad-based' government is what is needed, but the question is this is achieved.

Paddy Ashdown, the other day:

The problem with the Northern Alliance lies, not in their methods, but in their ethnic origins. They are Tajiks. The Taliban come from their age-long enemies, the Pashtuns who are the majority ethnic group of Afghanistan. If our strategy consists of no more than reversing the polarity in Afghanistan by using the Northern Alliance to impose a Tajik government on the Pashtun majority, then we may destroy the Taliban but we will create not peace, but the certain continuation of the bitter civil war from which this all began in the first place.

Thanks Nick for your very succinct explanation. I need to read that article again. The first time I read it was in an ultimately successful attempt to stay awake from 4:30am-6am.

The only problem I see with the ethnic stratification over there is the fact that it's all lumped in as "Afghanistan". I don't hear call from any quarter, or valley, to drop the tribe system they've had for hundreds of years. Why pretend that this area is a "nation" anyway?

Viva imperialism! We have oh so much to be thankful about for the nineteenth century's gifts to us.