ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - When Bahain Jan defended his country against Soviet invaders, he was armed with an AK-47 rifle, the zeal of a holy warrior and the conviction that God was on Afghanistan's side, making victory possible.
Now he fears Afghanistan's leaders might call for a holy war against the American superpower, but this time Jan does not expect divine intervention. God, he says, will not help the Taliban.
"They are mad," says Jan, who lives in a sun-baked mud hut in the Afghan slums outside Pakistan's capital city, Islamabad. "They are not holy warriors now. No one will take part in that."
Jan, 45, tugs at his long beard and shakes his head in disgust when he considers threats by Islamic hard-liners to unleash a new generation of holy warriors against the United States if its forces attack Afghanistan in search of Osama bin Laden, the suspected terrorist.
"God will not help Afghanistan now because it is not the same," he says during an interview at his home. "The whole world was with us when we were fighting the Russians, but now there is no country that is with the Taliban."
No doubt, numerous young Islamic militants in Afghanistan and in Pakistan disagree. But many Afghans, inside and outside the country, have lost faith in the Taliban. Many who lived through Afghanistan's deadly 10-year jihad - holy war - with the former Soviet Union do not see any religious motivation to protect bin Laden when their country faces so many other hardships.
"Osama is our enemy. He is not a friend," Jan says. "The jihad is gone now. Our only concern is getting bread."
Jan fought the Soviet army with high skill and deep conviction. He was so good with his rifle, he says, that he could "shoot a kite out of the sky." He killed two Russian soldiers: "One was hit in the belly, the other in the neck." He saw his homeland bombed and dozens of friends and neighbors die, but in the end he and other scrappy mountain fighters helped bring a superpower to its knees.
These days, with a shortwave radio that he clutches by his side like a purse, Jan tunes in to reports from the Voice of America and British Broadcasting Corp. They tell of poverty and unrest and Afghanistan's further isolation from the world. The United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic ties Saturday, leaving just two nations in the world that recognize the militant Taliban regime: Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
