Washington is counting on the help of the opposition Northern Alliance to overthrow the Taleban.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the US will strengthen opposition forces in Afghanistan 'so they will have better opportunities to prevail'.
The Alliance is an ethnically and religiously disparate group united only by a desire to topple the ruling Taleban.
But humanitarian groups are concerned about the human rights record of some of the group's members.
They say that troops routinely indulge in looting, raping, and killing in their attempts to capture the whole of Afghanistan.
Are the Northern Alliance suitable allies in the war against terrorism? Or is the West storing up future trouble in the region?
We've got a Poll on this at
http://www.servicepals.com/forums/sh...hp?threadid=38 but would welcome your views here too.
[ 23 October 2001: Message edited by: rosscoe_pk ]