It's good that there are people who are so well versed in the dynamics and psychology of the Taliban as well as the people of Afghanistan. However, our stated intention is not war with the Taliban. That could become an issue, but our stated intention is to fight a war on "terrorism". In order to fight and succeed in such a war, it will be self defeating if we focus on how things work in Afghanistan to the exclusion of all else.

It is necessary to fit what we know about Afghanistan and the Taliban into a much larger, very complicated jigsaw puzzle of nations, peoples, and religious and political ideologies. We have to examine everything we do with regards to Afghanistan and the Taliban in relation to how our actions effect the larger picture. If we don't, we run the risk of becoming mired down in a conflict with a very large portion of the world's population.

So it's good that we have people like the ones who have been quoted above from whom we can get good information. But that information must be placed into the larger context, and understood and acted upon from that perspective if we are to accomplish our objective.