Anti Pakistan sentiment works powerfully against non Pashtun Taliban. It even works against many Pakistani Pathan Pashtuns.

Sailani 11/5/2009 at 5:59 am, I agree with that. But I worry about overt anti Pakistani sentiment among ANSF and Afghans. This is a major factor behind why so many Pakistanis and Pakistani based extremist groups back the Taliban. However, whatever ISAF does, the ANP and ANA play the anti Pakistan card all the way.

The problem we have is while I think it would be possible to sow the seeds of misturst between Pashtuns and foreign fighters, I don’t think it can happen while the West has boots on the ground in Afghanistan.

Pashtuns are likely to view Uzbeks and Punjabis as somewhat less foreign than westerners, therefore using them to help get rid of us before pondering whether they want those foreign fighters to stay.

Where I do my work, in Haqqani’s backyard, there is at least one potential issue that complicates the relationship between local and foreign fighters (local being Af-Pak ones and foreign being most others). That is the attitude of the conservative local Pasthuns. Turns out they have little patience for the foreigners (they have less flattering terms of which I am not yet a master). This means that Haqqani is not able to use his foreign fighters in any operations which involve contact with the locals, or which take place in populated areas. A minor concern perhaps, but one that signals some potential negative future costs of Haqqani’s alliance – costs that might be exploited be clever adversaries.

How to stop these Takfiri extremists (I think this is a better name for them than “Al Qaeda” or “Taliban”)? I am not sure that different Takfiri extremist groups around the world are really all that different from one another. I find offensive, the widely held notion among many Europeans (and even Americans) that Takfiri extremists mass murdering fellow muslims for being “unfaithful” is no concern of ours, as long as they don’t kill “westerners.” This is the kind of western ethnocentric self centered uncaring nonsense that so angers the muslim and developing world.

In my view terrorism against everyone in every country is wrong, period. And unless extreme Takfiri networks that attack every country in the world are dismantled, no country and no people (nonmuslim or muslim) is safe.

Joe Harlan, it is difficult to answer the question you pose about Taliban/AQ connections in generalities. Perhaps break down the different Taliban militias and discuss how extreme each of them are (how committed they are to regional and global ambitions)? Specifically:
-Lashkar al Zil (a coalition of pro ISI and anti ISI Taliban)
-HiG
-Haqqani
-Different components of Quetta Shura Taliban
-Tehrik-e-Taliban
-Lashkar e Janvi/Sipah e Sahaba/Jundullah (Punjabi Taliban)
-Lashkar e Taiba/Jaish e Mohammed (Punjabi Taliban)
-Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) or Islamic Jihad Union (IJU)
-Chechan groups
-Arab groups in South and Central Asia