People remain woefully ignorant of the 'Taliban' and who and what they represent.
The Taliban in Afganistan and Pakistan are the younger, more militant, Pashtun (Pushtun) people. The Pashtun, some 10 million of them in their tribal homeland which straddles the Afghan- Pakistan border region and extends into other jurisdictions, hold conservative beliefs that date to biblical times. Western civilization is foreign to them. They are mostly Sunni, with a strict legal and moral code, that departs from Sharia law in a number of precepts. There are two lineages, one of which, the Ghilzai, is more urban.

The more these people are attacked, the more influence small groups of terrorists such as Al Qaeda will have with them.

None of the political contenders (nor the Bush government) seem to have any understanding of the Pashtun peoples.