The Taliban is not an ethnic group, it is a militia. Translated, taliban means student.
Rise of the Taliban (click here)
The Taliban was formed in the early 1990s by an Afghan faction of mujahideen, Islamic fighters who had resisted the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1979–89) with the covert backing of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and its Pakistani counterpart, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI). They were joined by younger Pashtun tribesmen who studied in Pakistani madrassas, or seminaries; taliban is Pashto for "students." Pashtuns comprise a plurality in Afghanistan and are the predominant ethnic group in much of the country's south and east....
The majority ethnicity of the Taliban are Pashtun. The USA military had control of the majority of Afghanistan except for the southeast portion of Afghaistan where the Pashtun are in majority.Southeast Afghanistan shares a significant border with Pakistan.
The Taliban's influence ends where Pakistan meets Afghanistan. A couple of years back the Taliban were driven to the Pakistan border. They sought to gain influence and power all the way to Lahore, Pakistan. There was violence all along the length of land from Pakistan to Lahore. When I read that (I think it was in National Geographic) I was concerned. Lahore is a majority city in Pakistan and at the Indian border. Lahore is also south of Kashmir.
Kashmir is an unstable land where India and Pakistan differ on it's rightful sovereignty. Pakistan claims Kashmir belongs to them and India claims it belongs to them. That is a different topic. The importance for this purpose is to understand it is a violent region. It can be influenced or at least that is the belief. It has not showed any actual preference of government and that is a long time already. Elders practice justice in Kashmir.
But, this is the really cool part. Pakistan completely rejected the Taliban all the way to Lahore. Kindly recall al Qaeda is among the Pakistanis and were responsible for the death of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Al Qaeda holds sway in Pakistan (Obviously, bin Laden) but it holds no authority other than among the tribal region.
All the control freaks will hate this, but, what is the USA doing in Afghanistan? We know for a fact the Taliban exist with permission of the people in southeast Afghanistan. We know the Pakistanis completely reject the Taliban and forced them back into Afghanistan. Supposedly, a majority of al Qaeda has been killed by US drones. I do not buy the fact the USA needs to be in Afghanistan anymore. I strongly believe it is nothing but USA politics maintaining pressure to continue a USA occupation in Afghanistan.
The ONLY reasonable view of Afghanistan is that the Taliban require a political solution. That has to be carried out by the central elected government in Afghanistan. We know the longer the USA is in Afghanistan the longer the money flows into the country and grows corruption.
There is every reason to believe the USA has to pull their military out of Afghanistan and currently provides the illusion the USA is safe because it is fighting the enemy a long distance away. All of the countries involved in the USA effort in Afghanistan have left. The USA is the only remaining country from The West in Afghanistan and it is causing more problems than it solves including the attack on a hospital. The USA needs to leave Afghanistan without delay.
When I say we should be out of Afghanistan there are reasons for it and they are not political reasons for the USA. I mean it. The USA is occupying Afghanistan for no reason other than politics and the elections of 2016.
