I'm sure that down the road there'll be people saying how the Taliban weren't anywhere near as bad as people made out - kept the place much more peaceful and stable than it had been before, cut down on corruption and the stuff the warlords got up to. A bit intolerant about music and the way people behaved and went in for some pretty dramatic destruction of ancient monuments and works of art, on religious grounds.

Much the same stuff as can be said about the Protectorate, really.

And it'd be true enough. There's some good stuff to be said about the most detestable regimes.