Pakistan, Aug. 15 -- There is a dangerous difference between a country at peace and a country merely under control. Afghanistan, five years after the Taliban returned to Kabul, illustrates that difference with disturbing clarity. The battlefield may be quieter, but the machinery of repression has not disappeared; it has moved into classrooms, newsrooms, government offices and the private lives of ordinary Afghans. A regime that promised security has instead presided over the exclusion of women, the intimidation of journalists, reprisals against former officials, a deepening humanitarian crisis and the continued presence of militant networks on Afghan soil. The question, therefore, is not whether the Taliban have brought an end to the old ...