Jim Smith asks: What is the relationship between the Taliban and bin Laden?
First, a quick refresher on the Taliban: The Taliban has only been around since 1994. At that time, Afghanistan was in chaos. Soviet troops had withdrawn in 1989, and since then the country had been plunged into a very destructive civil war. The Taliban was mostly made up of Afghan veterans of the war against the Soviet Union. In 1996, it overthrew the then-government. Originally, Aghans supported the Taliban because it ended the chaos of the civil war and made it safe to do business again. But the honeymoon ended once the Taliban brought in an extreme version of Islamic rule throughout the country. It included vicious punishment or death for any opponents or dissidents, and banned the following: women working and driving, TV and movies, the Internet, dancing, and much more. Now, Osama bin Laden. Back during the conflict with the Soviets, bin Laden had been great for the Afghans. He was rich, and gave the country construction equipment to build ditches, dig underground tunnels and plow
