a lot of people have remarked over the years that american policy towards pakistan makes no sense. but it's also true that pakistan's policy towards afghanistan makes even less sense. i understand why the ISI supported the taliban in the 1990s. the pakistani government feared india and afghanistan was a mess. the taliban seemed to be the group that could finally bring afghanistan under control of a single government. that would bring stability to pakistan's western neighbor and allow the rest of the pakistani defense establishment focus their attention on india and kashmir to the east.
the policy had a certain logic to it in the 1990s, but that logic doesn't apply anymore. nowadays it's the taliban that threatens stability of the central government in afghanistan. if the ISI still wants a quiet western border, supporting the taliban is exactly the wrong way to do it. on top of that, these days the taliban and the related militant groups are the biggest threat to pakistan, not india. the 1990s policy is out of step with current conditions on two levels, it both misdiagnoses the threat and prescribes the wrong remedy.
i realize that the pakistani government is pretty factionalized. the ISI elements that are aiding the taliban are just one faction and there are plenty of others who see things differently. it just seems like the bits of the ISI that are aiding the taliban are working on outdated assumptions. it's not the mid-1990s anymore.
