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[E. Albright]

Of course it's more complex than my 50-word blurb, or your 60-word rejoinder. Just as I didn't see need to discuss foreign backers of the Taliban, you didn't discuss domestic ones. Neither of us tried to definitively pin down who is the Taliban, either, and that makes a very big difference, particularly given the tendency in the western media to lump all resistance to the Kabul government under the heading of "Taliban".

(Though I would point out that my failure to discuss foreign material support of the Taliban was made in the context of strictly discussing popular support thereof. Whether or not a movement receives funding, matériel, or even direction from a foreign power is wholly irrelevant to the question of whether they enjoy the support of the populace...)

[mainiac]

While America did fund Taliban groups as well, the biggest winners from American aid were less fundamentalist groups.  They formed the national government after the soviets were driven out.  The Taliban only took over after a brutal civil war.  Even then the power remained firmly vested in the local warlords.  Interestingly enough the remnants of the national government that the Taliban overthrew were not completely vanquished.  They held on to some territory and continued their low intensity war against the Taliban as the Northern Alliance.  When the U.S. abruptly returned in 2001, they were the core of the U.S. supported groups that rapidly overthrew the Taliban.

[overlordFT]

Ah well, maybe tey're better games for a communist revolution ; _ ;