This is a really interesting New Yorker article by William Vollman that appeared in May 15th, 2000 issue. It has a lot of first-hand information about life under the Taliban.

http://www.newyorker.com/FROM_THE_ARCHIVE/ARCHIVES/?010924fr_archive05

Really good insights there. He writes a bit more sympathetically than I might - but he was there and I wasn't.

For all his understanding, however, he does come out and say that the whole of the Taliban is a potential threat to the US. I think if we can go in, beat them, and build up a real economic system, a Marshall Plan, there then the people might not fight us tooth and nail. They have no idea what a pleasant life even is.

What's clear is that we can't just leave Afghanistan to its own insufficient devices or it will just attract all the Osama bin Ladens of the world.