Jubilation at the fall of Kabul and apparent collapse of the Taliban all over Afghanistan is rampant. It’s obligatory to mention Kabuli men’s headlong rush to the barber for a shave. But, hey folks, the war’s not over by a longshot, and it gets dicier from here, as the Taliban retreat to the Pashtun areas of the south where they have enjoyed popular support; and to the mountains and caves. On the other hand, there is word of indigenous uprising against the Taliban even in Kandahar, euphemistically referred to as their “stronghold” in just about every news report I’ve read; anti-Taliban sentiment may be widespread, and the Taliban may be fleeing population centers in general. However, this may not be a rout but rather a strategic regrouping either for a counterattack or the kind of protracted guerrilla war that defeated the Russians. Analysts caution about the perils of assuming things are as they seem. Northern Alliance capture of Kabul accompanied by atrocities and looting; Robert Fisk comments that we ought not be surprised, and Simon Jenkins wonders if we ought to regret having this tiger by the tail, reminding us that it was factional fighting among these same people, when they were the mujahideen fighting the Russians, that gave the Taliban their ‘in’ seven years ago. Here’s an interview with foreign correspondent Robert Kaplan, whose travels with the mujahideen in 1990 were chronicled in his Soldiers of God. International stabilization may be necessary in post-Taliban areas. ObL, of course, is nowhere to be found; perhaps it would be a good idea to ask the ‘remote viewers’ US intelligence is reportedly using to predict future terrorist attacks to tell us what cave he’s in? In fact, why not let the remote viewers act as spotters for US bombing runs? The US and the Northern Alliance seem to have it out for al-Jazeera, whose Kabul office was hit by two American bombs (it seems, because its coverage has been seen in some circles as pro-terrorist) and whose Kabul correspondent fled after threats that he would be killed if found in Kabul when the Northern Alliance arrived. I’d been wondering, but some undisputable good news is that the Western aid workers imprisoned by the Taliban in Kabul have been freed.