TW: I thought this was outstanding article in which the Newsweek reporters actually interviewed Taliban leaders and members. It is a long piece and will not clip it but if you are interested in learning more about the challenges our country and specifically our troops face in AfPak please take the time to read it.
Certain things stood out including:
1) The Taliban as a group represent some heinous governing concept but individually they perceive themselves primarily as nationalists. Generally we know little about these folks, they are voids. But individually they are not monsters, they are folks with hopes and dreams of their own, few or any of which relate to Al Qaeda.
2) The folks in the region are tribal, they carefully delineate amongst the internal tribes, Pakistanis, Afghans and the "camels"/Arabs.
3) The Taliban were run out of Afghanistan in 2001 but there was a void left after their departure within Afghanistan. The Taliban gradually seeped back in especially after the Iraq War started which diverted our intelligence and special forces. Today they are rampant.
4) Notice how every single Taliban has spent time in Pakistan. Pakistan is the safe haven for the Taliban (and Al Qaeda). Pakistan provides recruits and considerable funding (so do the Saudis and other Gulf state Arabs). There is no solution to Afghanistan without some resolution to this dynamic.
5) On the good news front, it seems like just about every Taliban leader mentioned has a parentheses after his name (later killed in XXstan, in X month and year).
http://www.newsweek.com/id/216235
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