Both these measures will, by the same token, damage Mr Karzai's relations with the Northern Alliance's warlords, who are mainly Tajiks and Uzbeks.

ECONOMIST: The face of the new Afghanistan starts to take shape

But two of the most powerful warlords, Abdul Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek general who rules over the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, and Ismael Khan, who rules Herat in the west, refused to take the bait.

ECONOMIST: Small change | The

The Bush administration, as well as European governments, is accused of offering insufficient support to the ISAF. (No Americans serve in the lightly armed force, because America feared that its men would be sitting ducks.) Moreover, America's own forces collaborate with some local warlords, much as they relied on the rather vicious Northern Alliance to help defeat the Taliban.

ECONOMIST: Don��t start what you can��t finish | The