Taliban and the anti-terror stakes

The fact remains that the Taliban's unrelenting campaigns against the basic canons of humanism and modernity within Afghanistan have transgressed the known practices of historically repressive governance. Any strategy to replace the Taliban will, therefore, be welcome insofar as it furthers the genuine interests of the ordinary citizens of Afghanistan.

Pakistan's ongoing efforts to influence Mullah Omar's thinking have virtually come to naught. On a different but related plane, the U.S. at the moment seems to be ready with several alternative plans to try and dislodge the Taliban even while seeking to track down its "guest", Osama bin Laden.

A note of prudence will be in order, though. While it is true that the U.N. does not at all recognize the Taliban, it will be statesmanly of the U.S. to try and build a consensus within the UN system while intervening in Afghanistan to confront Mullah Omar over Osama bin Laden.

A simple matter of far-reaching logic is that the U.N. deserves to be privy to the U.S.' thinking in some substantive way or the other. It bears mention that the UN holds the ultimate moral responsibility to redress any humanitarian tragedy that might be triggered by a conflict between the Taliban and the international community.

Some of the options now being considered by the U.S., with or without an official acknowledgment, relate to a possible role for the former Afghan monarch, King Zahir Shah, as the initiator of a new government of national unity and reconciliation in Kabul. The anti-Taliban Northern Alliance has evinced interest in braving the Taliban with external help or even independently. These and other options need to be harmonized so that the Taliban can be consigned to the scrapheap of history.

-- The Hindu, New Delhi