ABSTRACT
The collapse of the Taliban forever changed America's strategic interests in a number of ways, which over the long run, may impede a realistic chance for a just peace in Afghanistan. Three weeks after the fall of Baghdad, the White House staged its own spectacular to celebrate the victory in Iraq, arranging for President Bush to land on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of California. Preventing a total breakdown in authority in Afghanistan was among America's most pressing intentions. American long term intention is to safeguard a governing system, which empowers President Karzai with the necessary tools so the new national government can be responsible for its own security in the long run. American foreign policy towards Central Asia is reflective of a peripheral vision that makes additional military action more likely in years to come and the hope of a just peace all the more difficult to achieve.
