The Taliban gained support and came to power on the premise of freeing the people from the oppression of the Northern Alliance (though they weren't called that at the time). So are we just swapping a repressive regime we hate for a repressive regime that will cooperate with us in beating a common enemy? Given what good buddies we are with Saudi Arabia, and Bush's professed distaste for "nation building," my hopes aren't too high.

And on a bit of a tangent, the capture of Kabul was the big banner headline this morning on the Washington Post, the LA Times, and the New York Times, but it was only the fifth story on the Washington Times, and the second in the Miami Herald and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It doesn't even appear on the front page of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.