The Enemy's Enemy

Black mourning banners still wave across the steep gorges, pockmarked villages and invisible redoubts that make up the thin sliver of Afghanistan not conquered by the Taliban. They honor the "Lion of Panjshir," Ahmed Shah Massoud, revered commander of the anti-Taliban forces, assassinated two days before the attacks on the U.S. Yet the loose collection of Northern Alliance fighters now calling themselves the United Front, who have doggedly held their narrowing ground for five years, are filled with high hope. American bombs are coming. America will help them win the victory they couldn't win themselves.

Since Sept. 11, big powers have come courting. U.S. officials who have long ignored the United Front are eager to plot cooperation. Russian generals muster Soviet-era equipment familiar to the fighters for immediate shipment. Iranian advisers, who steadily kept the rebel forces alive, promise more money and materiel. Afghan fighters, stalled for years just 30 miles from the capital of Kabul, see their dream of retaking the city within reach.

But the U.S., as it moves fast to make common cause with anyone opposed to the Taliban, must weigh the wisdom of embracing these men. The United Front looks like a ready-made partner, honed by years of battle-tested opposition to the Taliban, resentful of the foreign influence of Osama bin Laden. But if the Front has useful ground-level military capabilities, its feuding leaders, riven by ethnic and religious differences, and fractious makeup spell political peril. Nearly a dozen countries in the region hold a stake in the Front's fortunes, and Pakistan, slated as a prime partner for U.S. military actions, is bitterly opposed to advancing United Front interests. Even Washington officials eager to topple the Taliban wonder just how much good the Front can do.

The 15,000 armed fighters are an alliance in name only. Real control lies with a shifting patchwork of power-hungry warlords, guerrilla warriors and ethnic leaders who came together in the 1980s to fight the Soviet occupation. They make an uneasy blend of minority ethnic groups--Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara--in a predominantly Pashtun country, and include Shi'ite Muslims, despised by the majority Sunnis. As soon as they brought down the Soviet puppet ruler, alliance leaders turned on one another and viciously fought in bloody civil strife. The cosmopolitan capital, once known for its beautiful gardens and monuments, was reduced to rubble by factional warfare and complete lawlessness. Territorial warlords who regularly changed sides and betrayed one another are remembered for their ruthlessness and greed rather than any statesmanlike commitment to the nation's good. The Taliban rose to power by imposing austere law and order on the chaos, and gave the old comrades a common enemy again.

1. Why McCain Picked Palin
2. The Palin Pick: Bold or Disastrous?
3. McCain's Surprise Pick: Sarah Palin
4. Klein: Obama's Speech 'Very Tough'
5. McCain's Prickly TIME Interview
6. GM Recalling 944,000 Vehicles
7. Narrowing World Health Disparities
8. Russia 'to Absorb' South Ossetia
9. The Web's Word: Obama Is Not the Antichrist
10. Will Women Vote for Palin?