Who Are the Taliban?

There’s an amazing book by Rory Stewart, a UK diplomat/former MP, called The Places Between. He walked across Afghanistan in 2002 and the book documents his journey. it gives a nuanced cultural description of the tribal landscape (and is fascinating not dry). It’s worth picking up

I didn’t see it mentioned that USA trained and armed the Taliban when they were waging their jihad against the Soviets.

I saw the headline and felt immediately overwhelmed. I was a university student glued to my TV as the second plane struck the South Tower, as Blair and Bush did their thing and then as the tanks rolled in. Now twenty years later I’m seeing the same fucking headlines rolling by on repeat and I’ve just realised the cycle has begun again.

Taliban are crazy religious extremists who dynamite ageless UNESCO World Heritage monuments, and preach an irrational and Human Rights violating way of life based on some even dumber than usual interpretations of the Coran. This is so sad that religions can still have such damaging effects on the world and lives of so many people.

I wonder how big their forces are and how supported they are by the local population.