I wasn't referring to the Soviet invasion, but more to the relationship of the Northern Alliance and the rest of Afghanistan.

There were differences but no real Civil War. Afghanistan doesn't operate like Western democracies, or countries. Externally it seems like one country. One vote in the UN, one ambassador to the US, etc. A civil war implies an interest in controlling the external affairs of the country as well as internal.

Internally it's a lot of land with a bunch fairly autonomous tribes who get along to various degrees. None of them really give a damn about the central government as long as it stays out of the way. There are various turf wars and while they may not like each other for a variety of reasons they have mostly over the centuries come to an accommodation.

Kind of like the Crips and the Bloods in the US. Neither is trying to eradicate the other, particularly, but is protecting it's own interests. If the US poured money into the Crips in order to attack the Bloods the Crips would allow it, may participate some, but would leave the fighting to the US.

The recent history of the area is different from what is covered in daily reports and our understanding of how third-world countries operate is inadequate to allow accurate judgments.

Arf