"The idea then was to keep Afghanistan just below boiling point," said one Pakistan-based veteran of the jihad against Moscow's troops.
"The Taliban don't want an apocalyptic explosion of violence. They want a steady draining of the West's resources, will and patience," he said.
The Pakistani influence on the Taliban strategy does not surprise many observers. Senior NATO officials speak privately about `major Taliban infrastructure' in the neighboring country but Western military intelligence analysis has consistently underestimated the group's depth and breadth -- it can almost be considered the army of an unofficial state lying across the Afghan-Pakistani frontier that has no formal borders but is bound together by ethnic, linguistic, ideological and political ties.
Centered on areas dominated by Pashtun tribes, "Talibanistan" stretches from the Indus river to the mountainous core of Afghanistan and comprises tens of millions of people who, as well as language and traditions, increasingly share an ultra-conservative form of Islam.
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