First, I would like to apologize for writing in English; but after several years outside Sweden, it's more convient for me to write in this language.
Second, the United States did not support the Taliban during the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980s. The United States gave it's support to the Mujahedin which was the collective name for a number of organizations fighting the Russians. The main portion of the Mujahedin transformed into what was later the Northern Alliance and a couple of other local militias. Some ended up with the Talibans, but they consisted of a miniority of the Mujahedin; and by the way Usama Bin-Laden was not an important leader in the Mujahedin.
The Talibans was a creation of the FIS (Pakistan Secret Service) and originated among the religious schools in Pakistan during the middle of the 1990s. The organization did not exists during the Soviet-Afghan war and hence the United States would have been unable to support that particular organisation. Most of the Talibans belongs to the Paschtuns which is the dominating ethic group in souther and south-eastern Afghanistan. They had very few supports among the Tajiks and Uzbecks.
The Talibans was able to come to power in Afghanistan around 1996 thanks a popular disatisfaction with the Mujahedin rule since the fall of the Communist regime. The Mujahedin at that had been unable to create a competent government and split into several different and also corrupt factions often according to ethic lines. Only in the north which was dominated by the Tajiks and Uzbeks was local militias able to stop the Taliban onslaught.
During the Taliban rule they created a totalitarian rule that made Iran looks quite liberal. It's easy to create an appearance of "law and order" if there brutal oppression of the populace and even the slightest offence was punished harshly. I recommend you all to watch two movies, "Kandahar" about a woman who in secret enters to Afghanistan to stop her sister from committing suicide, and "Osama" which is a movie about a young girl and her mother living in Kabul after the city's fall to the Talibans.
Third, I noticed that people has mentioned that the drug production is up. It's correct that the drug production (opium) has increased since the fall of the Talibans, but you also has to ask yourself why the production has increased. It has increased because the society has become more free and the control of the populace is less. The Talibans punished all offenses very swift and harshly so violating any drug ban imposed by the Talibans would have been very dangerous.
The Afghan government today tries to combat the opium production but it's hard to do as long as there are no other alternate crops that would provice a good source of revenue. However, once the country has been rebuilt it will be easier to combat the opium production.
Fourth, people has mentioned that the central government only controls Kabul and not the rest of the country. That's a claim that's not completely true and becomes less true for every day. Less and less parts of the country is being ruled by local warlords and instead comes under the control of the central government.
It's a processed called DDR (Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration) there the central government one at a time disarms the local militias and then either integrate them into the Afghan National Army (ANA) or completely demobilize them.
The local warlords (governors) is one by one recalled from their posts in the provinces and brought to Kabul and there given some symbolic post in the government, while a new governor loyal to the central government is dispatched to the province to replace the old governor. I.e. the warlord and governor of Herat was recalled to Kabul a couple of months ago and made the "minister of tourism and mining" while his governorship was taken over by a man loyal to the central government.
It's a long process but it's taking its course and in not too long the central government will have full control of the whole country to include the border regions. The reason for it taking so long is that it's important that the process remains peaceful sa alot of diplomacy is being used instead of the threat of an armed conflict.
Fifth, the majority of the Afghan people is very supportive of the American presence in the country, and a large majority also have a good feeling about the direction that the country is currently taking. The country is being rebuilt, people has become more free, and the future looks quite bright (by Afghan standards). :bire
Lastly, you are greately mistaken if you believe that things is worse now than it was during the Taliban rule. If you had been to Afghanistan recently and also had known the truth about the brutality of the Taliban rule it would have been impossible for you to even consider to make that claim.
V/R
Legoknekten (in Afghanistan since August 2004)