I cant disagree on you about some nationalistic fervor in Afghan Taliban.
But does Taliban represents majority Afghanistan?
Was Taliban borne due to NATO/US aggression or there was NATO/US aggression due to actions of TALIBAN?
The Taliban, based on information I am aware of so far, did not knowingly support OBL and his henchmen in plotting or perpetrating 911 or any of the other terrorist attacks blamed on them.
The US/NATO did not by any means explore the option of engagement and a carrot and stick policy with the Taliban to get them to hand over the suspects, and chose a rush to war.
So I would argue that the Taliban have a legitimate grievance in that sense.
Didn't they control Afghanistan before US took over, who stopped from committing crimes against humanity?
The entities that controlled Afgahnistan before the Taliban, including the Northern Alliance warlords, also committed horrible 'crimes against humanity' including the slaughter of thousands from certain ethnic groups.
Remember that the conditions that existed in Afgahnistan before the taliban were so bad as to result in a majority of the Pashtuns and their allies welcoming the Taliban, of course in the end they proved to not be any better and appeared to have lost the support of the majority by the time the US invaded.
The point is that no faction in Afghanistan has been innocent, they have all been brutal and committed crimes. Karzai had to, under international pressure, veto a bill that would have legalized the rape of a wife in Afghanistan. And there have been various other laws passed that blatantly violate human rights - part of all this is just that many Afghans retain a tribal mindset, which will not change for generations, and even then only if education and progress takes place in Afghanistan.
I think its too much when we choose a time frame to analyze things according to our convenience.
Let Afghanistan decide who their friends are, who their representatives are. Give them food ,infrastructure and help them govern themselves through people's representation but before that we should stop thinking about our vested interests.
Yes - but the Taliban also have support, though it may not be anywhere closer to what it was in their heydey, and they are successfully arguing with those that support them that so long as NATO remains in Afghanistan, Afghans are not determining their destiny themselves.
Plus, Pakistan does not want to impose a power sharing agreement on the Afghans, it wants NATO and the GoA to consider it, open negotiations to explore it, and come to an arrangement acceptable to
all sides.