Talibanistan

The Afghans know that they can be killed "collaterally" by American or NATO Forces for being in close proximity to Taliban activity. They also know that they will be killed outright by the Taliban if they don't support the Taliban active in their region. Maybe the Afghans would like a clearer option. As it stands the Afghan who can't flee to the security of the urban centers is trapped in the vortex of being killed if they side with the Taliban or killed by the Taliban if they don't. 

Well Jim, If we keep accidentally (collaterally) killing them, and they know who is going to be around when we leave, whose side would you choose? A clearer option? I'm listening 30aught6.

The people in Afghanistan are threatened by inadequate governance, corruption, and abuse of power. Negotiations among Afghans is just one crucial piece of the ultimate solution in Afghanistan. A plan to transition from the current level of combat to a situation where Afghans take responsibility and Americans start to come home is another. Pakistan and Iran will be an integral part of any long term political solution in Afghanistan. Our military's ultimate objective is defeating the extremist threat in Afghanistan which is crucial to America's security interests. Afghan leaders need to speed the growth of the Afghan army. One major problem is Afghans perceive their sitting government in Kabul as illegitimate and corrupt. NATO’s very presence also is fueling the insurgency. Political progress must accompany security progress. Members of Pakistan's spy agency are pressing Taliban field commanders to fight the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan, some U.S. officials and Afghan militants say.

A recent Pentagon study concluded only 24% of the most critical districts in Afghanistan support the Karzai government and the rest are sympathetic to the insurgency. Respondents cited rampant corruption and ineffective governance as reasons for their opposition, and many see Karzai as an illegitimate President because they believe the most recent elections were rife with fraud.

Government corruption is so pervasive that large percentages of Afghans in key districts are willing to suffer through another era of Taliban fascism if the only other alternative is continuing to live under the Karzai regime’s reprobate and mob-like rule. The ultra-centralization that the Americans afforded to be written into the Afghan constitution has been almost as tragic a mistake as propping up Karzai as the leader.

The President’s brother for instance, Ahmed Wali Karzai (AWK), sits at the head of Kandahar’s provincial council but runs the region like a kingpin – and is notorious for being involved with security extortion rings, illegal real estate deals and the drug trade.

Despite initial claims that the Taliban were an indigenous force and wanted nothing more than to purge Afghanistan of hated warlords and criminals, a plethora of Western intelligence as well as public statements by Afghan and Pakistani officials indicates the Taliban are closely aligned to a fatal mix of transnational extremists backed by elements of Pakistan’s military that are bent on a political and religious transformation of the region. 1

"A recent Pentagon study concluded only 24% of the most critical districts in Afghanistan support the Karzai government and the rest are sympathetic to the insurgency."
Your response and treatment of the subject is serious and considerate.

Neither not supporting Karzai government, or sympathy with militants, translates into support for Taliban rule.

The Taliban—from the Arabic word for student, “taleb”—are fundamentalist Sunni Muslims, mostly from Afghanistan’s Pashtun tribes. The Taliban dominates large swaths of Afghanistan and a large part of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

A talib is an Islamic student, one who seeks knowledge compared to the mullah who is one who gives knowledge. By choosing such a name the Taliban (plural of Talib) distanced themselves from the party politics of the mujahideen and signaled that they were a movement for cleansing society rather than a party trying to grab power.”

There was no such thing as a Taliban until the Afghanistan’s civil war in the wake of Soviet troops’ withdrawal in 1989, after a decade-long occupation. But by the time their last troops withdrew in February 1989, they’d left a nation in social and economic shards, 1.5 million dead, millions of refugees and orphans in Iran and Pakistan, and gaping political vacuum that warlords attempted to fill. Afghan mujahideen warlords replaced their war with the Soviets with a civil war. Thousands of Afghan orphans grew up never knowing Afghanistan or their parents, especially their mothers. They were schooled in Pakistan’s madrassas, religious schools which, in this case, were encouraged and financed by Pakistani and Saudi authorities to develop militantly inclined Islamists. Pakistan nurtured that corps of militants as proxy fighters in Pakistan’s ongoing conflict with over Muslim-dominated (and disputed) Kashmir. But Pakistan consciously intended to use the madrassas’ militants as leverage in its attempt to control Afghanistan as well.

The Taliban’s most original aims were to “restore peace, disarm the population, enforce Sharia law and defend the integrity and Islamic character of Afghanistan.

The Taliban seek to establish a puritanical caliphate that neither recognizes nor tolerates forms of Islam divergent from their own. They scorn democracy or any secular or pluralistic political process as an offense against Islam. The Taliban’s Islam, however, a close kin of Saudi Arabian Wahhabism, is far more perversion than interpretation. The Taliban’s version of Islamic law, or Sharia, is historically inaccurate, contradictory, self-serving and fundamentally deviant from prevailing interpretations of Islamic law and practice. 1

Taliban are basically fundamentalists,who draw inspiration from teachings of inb-Tamimiyah,the founder of radical Islam,Abdul wahab and Jamat-e-Islami.Their approach has been to implement Shariah by force,elimination of all those who differ with their interpretation of Islam.Implementation of Shariah is not possible without capturing power,this is basic doctrine of radical Muslims.Although in Saudi Arabia,the Shariah laws are limited to penal code,rest is totally un-Islamic.

Kurds are different.They just a want an independent homeland for themselves,carved out of Turkey,Iraq and Iran.Kurds are secular,tolerant of followers of other religious groups.Taliban are interested in establishing their rule in whole of Afghanistan,would never be content with less.Taliban are a force to reckon with,and without their participation in any future peace talks no solution is possible to Afghan problem.Talibanistan,neither Taliban are demanding nor would accept it.

Nothing we do will change the fact, the status quo before we entered this war will change.

One thing thats changing is the political status quo not only in Afghanistan and Iraq, but the entire mideast. This may not mean a specifically democratic process in any of these countries, but it will mean a more engaged U.S. in the actions and influences of how these countries governments function. Specifically no more safe havens for terrorist groups to freely operate in those regions. I believe Iran is also under notice. It's nuclear program will be halted.  1