In addition to controlling warlords, the new Afghan government will also have to deal with the new problem of how to distribute and coordinate billions of dollars of international aid.
THESE arrangements have left almost all Afghanistan outside the capital in the control of warlords who offer only nominal fealty to Mr. Karzai's government.
Understanding for Rwanda's position eroded as eastern Congo fell under the control of warlords, and the people endured mass rape, massacres and starvation.
The Mai Mai militias began as self-defence forces, but are now simply roving bands of thieves and thugs, often under the control of warlords of no particular politics or loyalty.
A large part of the country is in the control of warlords who may or may not be in semi-collusion with the regime and whose principal business has been the production of heroin (and now methamphetamine, for export via Thailand, where it is known as yaba, "crazy pills").
At a time when the American-led coalition is trying to oversee a peaceful transition to full Afghan control, the warlords, including some in the government, joined a meeting of about 1,000 officials in Kabul to urge former mujahedeen fighters to take up arms against the Taliban.
Not with the central government, whose head, Hamid Karzai, has largely lost the respect of his people with his increasingly bizarre behavior: weeping at the plight of children in Kandahar, begging the Taliban to send him their address, confessing that he is powerless to control the warlords, auctioning off his silken robe to feed widows and orphans.
Maskhadov could not control brutal warlords who grew rich by organised crime and kidnapping.
"Violence and intimidation at the hands of soldiers, militia and police under the control of warlords have created a generalized sense of insecurity," Brad Adams, Asia executive director for Human Rights Watch, wrote in an open letter to Bush on Sept. 19.
"We must begin somewhere in controlling the warlords," one high-level member of the government insisted with frustration.
