Robert--Thank you for highlighting the fact that most news reports--whatever their partisan bents--continually elide: there is no "THE Taliban." There have been many books and papers over the years (back into the '90s) detailing the shifting alliances and conflicts within the many tribes and subgroups grouped together as The Taliban, bo…
Robert--Thank you for highlighting the fact that most news reports--whatever their partisan bents--continually elide: there is no "THE Taliban." There have been many books and papers over the years (back into the '90s) detailing the shifting alliances and conflicts within the many tribes and subgroups grouped together as The Taliban, both in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They may at various points have been rooted together as (alleged) talibs--religious students--but many of them retain much stronger ties to their ethnic groups and/or local warlords. There seems to me no doubt that there will be much churning-- negotiations, alliances, conflicts, buy-offs, etc.--in store for whichever Taliban tries to exert centralized political and ideological control. Our public rhetoric of us versus "the Taliban" just makes careful tactical and strategic planning all the more difficult.
Robert--Thank you for highlighting the fact that most news reports--whatever their partisan bents--continually elide: there is no "THE Taliban." There have been many books and papers over the years (back into the '90s) detailing the shifting alliances and conflicts within the many tribes and subgroups grouped together as The Taliban, both in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They may at various points have been rooted together as (alleged) talibs--religious students--but many of them retain much stronger ties to their ethnic groups and/or local warlords. There seems to me no doubt that there will be much churning-- negotiations, alliances, conflicts, buy-offs, etc.--in store for whichever Taliban tries to exert centralized political and ideological control. Our public rhetoric of us versus "the Taliban" just makes careful tactical and strategic planning all the more difficult.