The Taliban is also not a principled anti-imperialist force. In addition to its willingness to negotiate with the United States in the 1990s, the Taliban has close ties to Pakistan and at times acts as a conduit of Pakistani influence in Afghanistan. As discussed earlier, Pakistan nurtured and cultivated the Taliban and, even today Pakistan's military intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), maintains strong ties with the Afghan Taliban. In a region destroyed by three decades of war, with an economy dominated by opium production and sales and lacking in industry, the political forces that come into being must inevitably enact the agendas of greater powers.

Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politi…, loc. 368