Like ninepins the Afghan cities fell from a band of principled barbarians (the Taliban) to a band of unprincipled barbarians (the so-called Northern Alliance): first Mazar-e-Sharif where ex-communist general Rashid Dostam once ruled (at least his authoritarianism allowed for such institutions as Balkh University, where almost two thousand women studied), then Herat where Hazara leader Ismael Khan's writ once ran (and where the Taliban ruthlessly took on the radical democracy of the Shi'a), finally Kabul. CNN pundits told us that the military campaign overran the diplomatic initiatives and that there is no established procedure for a post-Taliban regime. We must now, it seems, await the inevitable wisdom of the State Department and its diplomatic efforts in a political quagmire. Poor State Department, we are expected to sigh.