We should just let the Northern Alliance have Afghanistan--sounds like they've earned it and expect it. We are there to destroy the taliban. Once we've done that, we should leave it be and let the new regime know that they will suffer the same fate if they mess with us. I fear we're going to stick our nose into their affairs, set up one of our disasterous puppet governments, (which earns us no love and usually stabs us in the back anyway) and then be stuck dealing with the consequences.
So what if we leave the region unstable? If they're busy with in-fighting they'll have less time to be a threat to us. We are definitely giving the Northern Alliance the wrong signal (arming them and encouraging them to attack the taliban) if we don't want them to take control. The Northern Alliance is cheering us on, but I fear we won't be happy until we've turned their cheers into curses. I have a feeling our idiotic foreign policy is going to make us a new set of enemies after the taliban is gone.
Don't get me wrong, I've been pioneering the concept of bombing the shit out of these savages.
Again, what is the future of the region when the streets are swept of rubble and how are the survivors to be dealt with?
Will there be another generation of Islamic terrorists calling for a friggin jihad? If I had my way, I'd turn the entire country into another silicon valley (sand turns into silica when it gets very hot). Nukes do a good job in achieving this objective. Regardless, this was not W's objective. We have to deal with future realities in the region.