sorry about the cab driver remark, it was off limits, considering some pakistanis in some countries are themselves cab drivers.
It doesnt bother me my friend because i know more pakistani mini cap drivers than afghan ones. Most taxi drivers of New York are pakistanis so dont forget that. So lets not ridiculate those who earn halal way of living. I am an Afghan and I am proud of it. i dont make personal remarks unless i am provoked.
Alright, now that we have that out of the way, to answer your original point about Pakistan getting a taste of its 'Vindaloo curry', that is a mischaracterization of the events that led to Pakistan's support for the Taliban.
Lets not forget that Hamid Karzai, his family, and many powerful Pashtun business and Tribal leaders, on both sides of teh Durand, but specifically on the Afghan side, were completely supportive of the Taliban when they first arrived on the scene.
Steven Coll discusses this in his book
Ghost Wars. These people were drawn in by the clever Taliban narrative of former Durrani Pashtun glory being resurrected (as part of an Islamic State of course). Not only that, but they were welcomed by the local populace (in Pashtun areas atleast) after the chaos and crime of the warlords.
The above, the distrust of the NA leaders, and the ethnic connections with a significant section of the Pakistani populace, is what led to Pakistan supporting the Taliban.
It was never an attempt to merely foist an obscurantist and medieval regime on Afghanistan, it was an attempt to seek stability in some fashion, and the ISI's attempts to get first the Mujahideen and then the Taliban leadership to arrive at some sort of an arrangement with the NA leadership have been documented by both Steve Coll and Ahmed Rashid in
Ghost Wars and
Taliban respectively.
Coll even mentions how OBL was put in touch with Hekmetyar in order to dissuade him from advancing on Kabul (Massoud beat him to that anticipating his betrayal).
The events leading to 911 were hardly Pakistan running amuck with some evil design for imposing extreme Islamism on the world - it was a case of choosing the lesser of evils, in the hope of gaining stability on its Western front, that unfortunately went in a direction no one could have anticipated.
". No hardfeeling but just a reminiscence.
