Afghan factions and the United Nations have managed to sign an agreement stipulating the composition of an interim administration, or Cabinet, to replace the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The official inauguration of the interim administration on Dec. 22 -- after the Ramadan month of fasting ends -- will mark the first step toward reconstruction of the Afghan state.
On Wednesday, however, the very same day that the agreement was signed in the suburbs of Bonn, Germany, an extremely ominous event occurred as if to symbolize the dangerous path that the administration will have to navigate. Mr. Hamid Karzai, who will be appointed chairman of the interim administration, and therefore virtually prime minister, suffered a slight injury in an errant bomb attack by the U.S. military near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. It was reportedly a very narrow escape for him. According to the British newspaper The Times, Mr. Karzai at the time was in the process of contacting the Taliban to negotiate a peace.
This fact seems to signify that the immediate aims of the interim administration and the United States are quite different. While the interim administration's priority will be to end the fighting and restore public order, America's priority remains that of wiping out the Taliban and the al-Qaeda terrorist group and to hunt down Osama bin Laden.