Lets be clear here, the Taliban are a Islamist Fundamentalist student movement which was created in Pakistan and exported to Afghanistan, they took power during vacuum created by Islamist fighters after they deposed the socialist government (in the most brutal fashion).

As despicable as the Taliban are, they were not NOT responsible for 9/11. Taliban and Al Qaida are not the same. They were responsible for harboring al qaida on their soil though.

However I am convinced that the US intervention and deposition of the taliban was a positive thing. I am providing my perspective as an Indian and on the basis of views of Afghan students I met during university and by interacting with afghan refugees.

1. The taliban were brutal regime, they completely subjugated women, there were many cases of women being stoned to death in football stadium. Situation of men was only slightly better.
2. No TV, Radio, Music etc was allowed as it was deemed sinful.
3. Only religious education was permitted.
4. They attempted to ban western medicine especially vaccination.
5. No rights and no rule of law.
6. Destruction of cultural artifacts. (Including the shocking destruction of the "Bamiyan Buddhas")
7. Unprecedented repression of minorities

It was hell on earth, absolute. The US was responsible was responsible for creating by arming Islamists (as they are doing in Syria and now we have ISIS) against the socialist government.

People in the west can not imagine the poverty, desperation and squalor in third world countries and Taliban Afghanistan was the very worst. You guys have one attack in a decade, in countries in South Asia especially Pakistan there is an attack every week.

Religion has been the bane of my region :( and trust me when i tell you that all these zealots must be done away with.

There are many benefits to war aside from victory for your nation; I promise you someone is making big $$$ by prolonging our influence in the middle east.

I don't believe either side is or has approached this in the best manner possible and all I can say for the US is that the best interest of our (the American) people is merely an afterthought as to what might actually be gained in this giant game of chess; The only people seeing benefit also happen to be criminals in their own right.

But the fact that the Afghanistan people themselves don't want the western military forces either kind of shows that this doesn't really answer the original question.

And most Afghanis are very well aware that the Taliban are just a by-product of earlier US involvement in Afghanistan. They are the same warriors that the US used as a proxy army for fighting the soviets in Afghanistan in the 80s and supported by shipping them weapons etc. The same Mujahideen who were so positively being portrayed in Rambo 3. For the cause of anti-soviet propaganda, the US even created schoolbooks for afghani children that should introduce them to the concept of Jihad.

Then when the soviets finally gave up on Afghanistan, those people now had lots of weapons etc. supplied by the americans etc., but since they were no longer of any interest to the US, the US no longer supported them, and tenthousands of people became jobless and useless from one day to the other. But most of them had never learnt anything but killing, so they didn't simply throw away all those weapons and started normal jobs, but instead became mercanaries for whoever would pay them, and many of them actually acquired an anti-western mentality, seeing how the west had only used them for its own interests and didn't give a damn about them once they were no longer being useful.

Afghanistan is a great example of why it almost ever turns out a bad idea to use a local militia as a proxy army and supply them with arms.

It was Bush for giving Bin Laden weeks to leave and pretty much announcing when he was going to "smoke them out". You see, they're old oil buddies.

Good and informative post, thanks.

I wonder how many people knew quite how brutal Afghanistan was (and how other countries in the region currently are).

Pretty much, yeah

I agree with your point that the US support of Islamist fighters against is responsible for the current situation and led to the current and wasincredibly short sighted. However the Taliban are new breed of Islamists funded by Arab money. Essentially there were and still are two major groups in the region

1. The Taliban : This group mainy comprises of people of the Sunni Pashtun tribe, which is ethnic majority. They recieve support from the Pashtun people especially in conservative rural areas.This organisation recieves major  support of Pakistani state and arab money.

2. Northern Alliance: This alliance are remnants of the "mujahideen" the US created with help from Pakistan and China (surprisingly). They booted out of power by the Taliban. They are not unified ethnically or ideologically, most of them are not even islamists in the proper sense. Prior to 2001 they ere in control in the north with support from Iran and India. Post US intervention they are in power again. With a new, more western face.

one must look at this conflict from an ethnic perspective and not just as a religious one. It started way before Nato landed and will continue way after they leave. Shouldve just left the country to the socialists and the country wouldve been a different place

Taliband.

"Better a thousand days of tyranny than one day of anarchy".

Taliban didn't blow up our towers, Al-Qaeda did. The Taliban were simply allowing al-Qaeda to use their country as a hideout and training ground.

That said, Taliban is the far more reactionary force. It does nothing to excuse any war crimes Americans might commit, but it's pretty clear who is in the right here, in the view of all except for fundamentalist Muslims.

Both are as bad as each other.

Afghanistan weren't even responsible for 9/11 so the US is bad, while the Taliban are just scum from medieval times