Reply #3: "Invaders from Pakistan." I don't think that's accurate.

[High Plains]

I believe most of the Taliban come out of southeast Afghanistan. Many grew up in refugee camps in Pakistan after their families fled the Russian war of the 1980s and the wars of the warlords in the early 1990s. They took power in Afghanistan in 1996.

Also, while some may indeed be Pakistanis, they are almost all Pashtuns. When the Brits were dividing up their colonies, they drew the Durand Line between Afghanistan and Pakistan in 1919, splitting the Pashtun nation into two. I don't think the Pashtuns give two shits about whether they're Pakistan or Afghan citizens or pay much attention to that invisible line; they're Pashtuns, and to some extent, this is a Pashtun nationalist rebellion.