Western forces initially saw the Taliban as a better option than the Russians and Iranians. By supporting the Taliban they hoped to keep Russian influence out of Afghanistan, to ensure that the west kept access to the huge oil and gas riches of central Asia.

The Taliban massacres of Hazaras were embarrassing to western countries - this alternative to the Russians were even more brutal.

The Allied invasion had one good outcome - for the Hazara people of Afghanistan, who were being subject to genocide prior to the UN invasion. The Taliban particularly targeted the Hazara people,kidnapping their teenage boys and putting them in the front line of their operations, brutally slaughtering Hazara villagers and leaving their bodies to rot in mass graves across the country.

The United States is the largest contributor to a United Nations relief effort in Pakistan, but US money in Pakistan does not always go where it's meant to. While the Taliban continue to be backed by Pakistans' Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), the US, through Aid programs to Pakistan, is effectively funding the same people it's fighting in Afghanistan, the Taliban.

A better way would be to put the money into education, hospitals and schools in Afghanistan, to shift the local loyalty away from the Taliban and build up something stable for the future.