Re: The Prospects of a Talibanized Pakistan
And we tolerated them because they were fighting the Soviets.
The Taliban were created in 1993, the war with the Soviets ended in 1989
Well, not really. Radicalization of Pashtoon population on both side of Afghan/Pakistan border was done by successive Pakistani governments, ISI and Army for 2 reasons. One was to undermine nationalist groups in NWFP, and 2 to replace nationalists with Islamists. The problem with that arrangement is that you can contain nationalist who were a local problem with militant jihadis who don't believe in any political boundaries, and have become an international problem.
As for Taliban, they did not fell from the sky in 1993 and landed in Afghanistan. They're the same people who were fighting soviets, except they were given a different name...Mujadeens to Taliban to now Terrorists. Same people and same backward ideology, but different names. So, we not only tolerated them, but we created them and we're paying the price for it now.