Re: Taliban collapse

List,

The Guardian is reporting that Omar agreed to leave Kandahar because of an
uprising by tribal chiefs in the city. One of the problems now with with the
withdrawal from Kandahar is that angry mobs bent on justice are preventing
Taliban from escaping. The Taliban are leaving because they fear for their
lives.

It is being widely reported elswhere that the source of rebellion against
the Taliban is not only the various ethnic groups typically reported to
oppose the Taliban but also the Pashtuns who have been thought to be the
wellspring of the Taliban rule. The last Taliban stronghold, where there has
been a marked spirit to battle, is in Kunduz, where several thousand of
Pakistani and Arab fighters (al Qaeda) refuse to surrender. All this sheds
light on what the Taliban is.

Andrew Austin
Green Bay