While Americans continue to cope with the economic fallout and lingering anxiety post-September 11, compounded by Monday’s heartbreaking crash of American Airlines flight 587, Northern Alliance military units, backed by U.S. bombing raids, struck a major victory in Afghanistan. As Taliban forces retreated from the country’s capital, Kabul, Northern Alliance units firmed their grip on the city, causing mixed reactions of cautious optimism and outright skepticism:

• The White House has welcomed the takeover.
  
  
• Some Afghans expressed fears of renewed fighting that gripped the city before the 1996 Taliban coup.
  
  
• Pakistan expressed weariness over Northern Alliance control and called for a UN a peacekeeping regiment.
  
  
• The Northern Alliance has sought to allay such international concern over a “security vacuum” and has invited the United Nations to help organize discussions on a post-Taliban government.

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld warned that this triumph does not foretell the end of the war on terrorism. “This effort against terrorism and terrorists is far from over,” he said. “The war is not about one man or one terrorist network or even one country.”

Questions remain about regional stability and the status of the war on terrorism:

• How does a nation transition from a military to political governance? What will the U.N.’s role be?
  
  
• Will the long-standing division between north and south ethnic factions prove stubborn to bridge? Will it jeopardize any military and political settlement? What will U.S. involvement be in the south?
  
  
• What characterizes the delicate relationship of U.S. and Northern Alliance forces?
  
  
• How do we avoid repeating the cycle of U.S. entanglement in unstable governments?
  
  
• What is the effect on humanitarian aid efforts?