I noticed you switched from talking about al-Qaeda to the Taliban. The Bush administration tended to group the two together, but what's a good way of looking at the two groups?
Yes, I mentioned the Taliban simply because that's what I had read about. I don't know much about Al Qaeda, so I couldn't say much about that group in particular. I was not conflating the two groups; rather, I was using the Taliban as an example to make a broad point about Pakistan: that it is not simply "America's ally in the war on terror." It's also a quasi-ally of the Taliban (and Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and other terrorist groups). "It's complicated," as they say.
The relationship between Al Qaeda and the Taliban is also complicated, and I'm probably in the dark as much as you are. My understanding is that they've never seen eye-to-eye, but apparently bin Laden was responsible for bringing the groups closer together. Al Qaeda has often resided in Taliban territory, with the latter's permission and protection.
